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This is the beginning of what we hope will be a number of
fundraising efforts over the next few months, we don’t expect to hit our
stretched target with the first attempt, but give it time.

On March 19^th seven runners will be taking part
in the Reading Half Marathon under the banner “Shoulder2Shoulder” and raising
funds for the Berkshire Cancer Centre. The eighth member of the team isn’t a
runner so he’ll be in charge of publicity and fundraising. Read on for the
story…….

All eight members of the “#Shoulder2Shoulder” team have one
thing in common. In some way, shape or form they have connections to
Redingensians Rams Rugby club. Be it as a player, supporter, coach, minion, or
parent.

In December 2015 the non-running member of the team was
diagnosed with T2 cancer of the throat. Paul underwent 30 sessions of
radiotherapy and five sessions of chemotherapy, all under the watchful eye of
the Berkshire Cancer Centre which is based in the Royal Berkshire Hospital in
Reading.

The support and treatment Paul received from the hospital
was amazing, in these days of the NHS being bashed left, right and centre he
couldn’t have asked for better care.

The support and love Paul received from the team at
Redingensians was equally as important to his long term recovery and wellbeing.

A rough estimate of the cost of the treatment Paul has
received is £15,000 and counting.

Whilst going through treatment Paul started a blog to keep
people updated with how he was getting on, this was eventually turned into a
book called #Shoulder2Shoulder and published on Amazon. All the proceeds from
the book were donated to MacMillan Cancer Support and The Berkshire Cancer
Centre. To date just under £1,000 has been raised. The book is still available
on Amazon at this link –

#Shoulder2Shoulder

If we now move forward to a cold Saturday in November 2016.
Steve Poole, one of the runners, approached Paul with an idea, now Steve is
really good at coming up with crazy ideas, in fact he’d just completed a short
cycle ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End, just for the fun of it of course,
in fact Steve said originally he was treating the ride as a holiday! On his
only rest day Steve read #Shoulder2Shoulder and came up with the idea of using
his skills as a motivator and coach to persuade others to raise funds via the
#Shoulder2Shoulder banner and to go some way to paying back the NHS for the
treatment Paul received.

The Berkshire Cancer Centre is specifically raising funds
for a new linear accelerator machine. Paul was zapped 30 times by one of these
machines during his treatment. There were times when treatment was delayed
whilst repairs were carried out on one of the two existing machines. The last
thing you want when you’re ill and undergoing treatment is delays. A new
machine will help all those people who undergo radiotherapy on a daily basis.
It will also help the wonderful staff.

One in two people in the UK will be directly affected by
cancer during their lives.

So this is us, Steve, Kath, Olly, Zoe, Ben, Stevie (Scuba),
Sophie, known as the runners, and Paul as general dogsbody and
photographer.

Any funds you can spare would be really appreciated by the
runners and the patients who’ll see the benefit at RBH.