In support of Clatterbridge: Game On (www.clatterbridgecc.nhs.uk/charity/home), join us for a virtual endurance charity gaming marathon of unreasonably epic proportions. 

Streaming on Twitch: twitch.tv/bunnyfrog/

How the 24-hour RPG works

For 24 hours straight, from 10am Saturday 20th March to 10am Sunday 21st, I'll be taking part in a 24-hour tabletop roleplaying game (RPG), streamed live on Twitch. If you're not sure what a tabletop RPG is, I've popped some info at the bottom of the page for you.

Our Game Master (GM) will take us through an adventure yet unwritten, fraught with mystery, peril, and probably more than a little buffoonery. As a spectator, you can watch our travels, send us well-wishes, and make donations to help or hinder our quest.

For every £5 you donate, you'll be able to add a 'Friend' or 'Foe' token to the game. A Friend token could mean an extra dice roll or a second chance for me. A Foe token could be an enemy taking an extra swipe for my head, or my character taking just a little too long to think her move through! It's up to you to make my journey just that little bit easier, or that much more challenging!

You can put your choice of tokens in your donation message, let me know beforehand, or even post in the Twitch chat during the livestream!

The personal bit

More often than not, everyone's got a story about cancer - whether it's affected them personally, someone in their family, friends, loved ones. 

About five years ago, my mum had cancer. She underwent a full hysterectomy, including the removal of her pelvic lymph nodes. We were fortunate, at the time, that she didn't need to undertake any additional radiotherapy, though her road to recovery certainly wasn't smooth. For months afterwards she was on injected antibiotics, and struggled to regain her energy. Even now she still struggles with some of the aftereffects of the operation.

Recently her health started to decline again, including difficulty breathing. She underwent a CT scan, hoping that it was just her asthma playing up. Unfortunately that's not the case. 

Cancer's a tricky disease; you miss one piece and it'll just come back. She now has multiple sites of infection, including cancer throughout her lungs. She faces biopsies and chemotherapy in the months to come. Maybe longer than that. It's still early days, so I remain hopeful that the treatment won't be too harsh on her, and that it'll be effective.

While Clatterbridge Cancer Centre hasn't been involved in my mum's treatment, the work that any charitable organisation across the UK does to research, treat and support those with cancer (and their families), is something I believe is worth supporting. I'd appreciate anything you can give in support of the work Clatterbridge does.

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is one of the largest networked cancer centres in the UK. From 18 hospitals across Merseyside and Cheshire, we host more than 240,000 patient appointments every year; offering pioneering chemotherapy, radiotherapy and proton therapy treatments. 

The Clatterbridge Cancer Charity is the only dedicated charity for patients and research at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. 

By choosing to support our charity, you'll help us to improve patient experience, fund vital research, the latest therapies and innovations in cancer treatment. Last year, work began on building Liverpool's first cancer hospital in the heart of the city, backed by our £15m appeal and thanks to your fundraising, we opened the doors to Liverpool's first cancer hospital on 27th June 2020. So whether you take on a solo challenge, or team up with your friends and family be part of the action and help us transform cancer care throughout the region!

Don’t know what a tabletop RPG is?

A tabletop role-playing game can have as many, or as few
participants as you like (though you probably want a few more than two). While we’re usually all gathered around a table, wielding pen, paper and polyhedral dice, this year we’ll be playing online.

In your typical RPG, there are two roles to take on:

• Game Master (GM) – they take on the omniscient role of the narrator, designing the story and becoming any number of non-player characters within the game
• Players – they’re everyone else at the table, each playing their own character, narrating their actions and choices

The players, at the direction of the GM, will travel through a fantasy land (though it could be any genre – horror, steampunk, sci-fi etc.) encountering mysteries, strange characters, gruesome creatures and anything else the GM can throw their way. Players will make choices on how they interact with these otherworld denizens, often basing the success of their encounters on their stats.

It’s probably a bit easier to understand if you’ve watched or been a part of an RPG before, so I’d encourage anyone to come and watch – fledgling traveller or experienced dungeoneer, alike.