Inspirational Pupil Trains for Fundraising Challenge
Former leukaemia sufferer, Josh Henshaw-Bancroft, together with a group of classmates from Wheldon School, Nottingham, is to embark on a cycling challenge to raise money for a local Leukaemia Research charity.
Life Fitness has assisted in raising the profile of the forthcoming challenge by lending the school a Lifecycle for a special ‘cycle relay’ event.
Seven years ago, at the age of eight, Josh Henshaw-Bancroft was diagnosed with leukaemia. After enduring three years of gruelling chemotherapy, Josh became a pupil at Wheldon School in Nottingham at the age of eleven. Keith Allton, physical education teacher at the school, says: “Very few of Josh’s fellow pupils knew about his illness, he never let it stand in his way and, as a keen sportsman, he really got stuck into everything.”
Last year, at the age of fourteen, Josh was finally declared to be in remission and he decided that he’d like to help others who were now suffering as he had in the previous years. “Some of the close friends that Josh made in the leukaemia unit at the hospital unfortunately lost their battle with the disease. Indeed, Josh’s mum’s sister also contracted leukaemia when she was fifteen and didn’t survive. So Josh felt very strongly that he’d like to help fight the disease and give something back to those that helped him through his ordeal,” says Keith. “We’d spoken about the potential to do some fundraising quite a few times, but it wasn’t until the end of last year that Josh felt strong enough, both mentally and physically, to take on a challenge so close to his heart.”
So at the end of 2006, Josh, together with his dad, eight school friends and Keith, decided to sign up for the 144-mile ‘Coast to Coast’ bike ride. The challenge, which begins in Whitehaven on the far west coast of Cumbria and ends at Roker Pier, Sunderland, on the east coast, will take place at the end of June 2007. The 11-strong team from Wheldon School will be raising money for their local Nottingham Leukaemia Research charity, which will benefit the National Research Centre for Haematology based at City Hospital, Nottingham.
In order to raise the profile of their forthcoming challenge, Josh, and his fellow cyclists, conducted a ‘cycle-relay’ on a Life Fitness Lifecycle set up in the school hall during a ‘Non-Uniform Day’ at the school on February 16. The team’s pedalling power paid off and they managed to raise over £600 – a great start to their fundraising efforts.
Keith said: “We’re very grateful to Life Fitness for lending us the stationary bike for this charity event. It really helped to boost the profile of our approaching Coast to Coast cycle challenge. The whole school has really got behind us and I’m sure that with Josh’s fighting spirit and enthusiasm to spur the rest of us on, we’ll be successful in tackling our trip through the Lake District and Pennines.”
If you would like to support Josh, Keith and the rest of the team in their fundraising challenge, please visit www.justgiving.com/joshC2C for further information, or email Keith at k.alton@wheldon.notts.sch.uk.
 BACK TO LIST OF ARTICLES | NEXT ARTICLE |
|
