Two Weeks In: £10,000 Raised, and a New Target of £15,000

Two Weeks In: £10,000 Raised, and a New Target of £15,000

Raising £10,000 across 31 days of walking sounded ambitious when we put the campaign together back in June. It was the sort of number you write down and then quietly hope for. Twelve days into August, it had already been passed.

As things stand, Step Up For Oracle has raised £10,302 for Oracle Head and Neck Cancer UK. The original target is behind us, so we have set a new one. The stretch goal is £15,000, which leaves £4,698 to find before the end of the month.

That first figure was reached far quicker than anyone at Tremark expected, and it happened because clients, colleagues, friends, family and a growing group of businesses got behind it. Thank you, genuinely. What follows is where the campaign has got to, and where it still needs to go.

The walks so far

Mark Hodgson, our Director, committed to walking 10 kilometres every day in August.

The first fortnight has covered a fair spread of Yorkshire. Day 1 ran from Horsforth to Headingley, followed by a loop of the Harewood Estate on Day 2. Days 3 and 4 worked eastwards from Thorpe Park through Little Preston and on to the Miners Arms at Methley, before a run of three days took in Methley to East Ardsley, East Ardsley to Batley, and Batley across to New Farnley.

Day 8 took in the Crooked Billet and Hazelwood Castle, and Day 9 headed out to Carlton and Camblesforth. The route then came back west, New Farnley to Calverley on Day 10, then Calverley and Apperley Bridge round to Horsforth on Day 11. Day 12 was Beverley, walked ahead of the races. Today, Day 13, is Horsforth up to the New Inn at Eccup.

Very few of those days have been walked alone. Colleagues from the Tremark office, along with friends and family, have joined for stretches or for the full ten kilometres, and the company has made a real difference on the mornings when the weather has not been playing along. Anyone who fancies a section of a route is still welcome to come along, and the full list of remaining days is on the campaign page.

Why Oracle Head and Neck Cancer UK

This one is personal. In the summer of 2023, Mark was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer affecting his throat, tongue and a nearby lymph node. The months that followed involved an intensive course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, under the care of Dr Mehmet Sen, whose expertise and support Mark credits with getting him through treatment.

Dr Sen has since retired from the NHS, but he now gives much of his time as a trustee of Oracle Head and Neck Cancer UK, raising awareness, supporting patients and their families, and working to improve treatments and outcomes. That connection is the reason this particular charity, and this particular month of early starts.

The wider picture explains the urgency. Around 17,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer in the UK every year, which works out at roughly 34 people every day. It is now the fourth most common cancer in men, case numbers are climbing by about 30% every decade, and only a third of cases are caught early, which has a direct effect on survival. A large share of throat cancers are driven by HPV, a link that is still far less widely understood than the one between HPV and cervical cancer.

Thank you to our sponsors

Fourteen businesses have put their names and their money behind the campaign, and a good chunk of the total raised so far is down to them. Our sincere thanks to:

• Shadowfax Funding Solutions
• Baytree Interiors
• FRP Advisory
• Clarion Solicitors
• Reward Funding
• CWN Group
• Nurture CRM
• Wilson & Roe
• McCarthy’s Storage World
• TIB Group
• J9 Special Situations
• Addlestone Keane
• TFG Capital
• Fresh Thinking Capital

There are still a handful of sponsorship slots available for the second half of the month. Sponsors get their logo on the campaign page throughout August, bank transfer is fine, and a full invoice is issued for your records. Mark handles these directly at mark.hodgson@tremark.co.uk or on 0113 263 6466.

Getting to £15,000

If you have been meaning to donate and have not got round to it, the JustGiving page takes about a minute and every penny goes straight to the charity. If your business might want its logo alongside the others above, drop Mark a line. And if you would rather just come and walk, say which day suits and he will send over the route!

Fundraising aside, the awareness matters just as much. Head and neck cancer is far more common than most people realise and far too often caught late. If reading this prompts one person to get a persistent mouth ulcer, lump or sore throat looked at, that is worth something on its own.

You can follow the rest of the month, see the remaining routes and donate on our Step Up For Oracle campaign page, and read about the other causes we support through our community involvement work.