For Prostate Cymru 2013 was an extremely successful yet poignant year.
First of all we would like to thank all our supporters for 2013 and hope that we will work together again in 2014. We are extremely grateful for your support, ideas and communication.
Prostate Cymru had some incredible highs in 2013, first and foremost celebrating our 10th Birthday with our annual Royal Porthcawl Golf Day, with a British Lions theme, which was an extremely successful event.
There was also an epic bike ride from Rhyl to Bridgend via Caernarfon, Aberystwyth and Carmarthen – over a hundred miles ridden in 3 days, an excellent achievement for all who took part!
2013 also saw Prostate Cymru’s first major challenge event – a trek of five volcanoes in Ecuador, entitled Touching the Sun, led by trustee Andy Thomas. The team tackled ice storms, snow, wind and altitude and raised over £40,000 for our cause! Read more about there time with Andy’s blog on our website!
2013 saw the launch of three new events for Prostate Cymru. The first was a choir concert featuring Bridgend Male Choir, Pendoylan Church in Wales School Choir and soloists. This was a great evening enjoyed by everyone featuring show tunes, pop songs and choral classics. September saw the launch of the 5 Valleys ride starting from Margam Park and looping around down the A48, up to the Bwlch and round back into Margam Park. This ride saw over 200 cyclists take part in the event which we hope will grow this year. Our third new event was the Autumn Cup Golf Day held at the Vale Hotel. Despite torrential rain, thunderstorms and some pools of water everyone was able to play some holes, with most finishing the entire course. This was an excellent day even with the weather!
Late in the year came the news that the Welsh Government would be funding DaVinci robotic surgical systems for Wales, something that Prostate Cymru had been extremely vocal about through our Operation Robot campaign, including submitting a petition of over 2000 signatures to the Assembly. We at Prostate Cymru are very proud of our input and the effect of our campaign. Moreover, with the money raised by our intrepid trekkers on Touching the Sun we will be establishing bursaries to enable the doctors and nurses who will make up the medical team to be trained on this machine.
Unfortunately 2013 was marred by the sad loss of our inspirational founder and chairman Ray Murray. Ray was an inspiration to all that met him, and was a determined and charming man who deeply believed in this cause. He is sadly missed by everyone here at Prostate Cymru and by many more that met him.
2014 will see us launch our partnership with Chepstow Racecourse – we hold our inaugural Prostate Cymru Family Fun Day there on the afternoon of Easter Monday, 21st April 2014, with both a fundraising team, and corporate hospitality in one of the onsite restaurants.
Golf will continue to feature this year with golfing events at Royal Porthcawl, which will be the Ray Murray Inaugural Cup, and the Autumn Cup event at the Vale.
July will see a group of riders cycle from Porthcawl to Paris to coincide with the end of the Tour De France, which will be an epic journey. Our 5 Valleys ride will take place again, along the same classic route, on the 31st August where we hope to attract yet more riders this year.
We also welcome the new group, Friends of Prostate Cymru Pembrokeshire into our network. Our supporters here have been extremely active over the last twelve months organising a whole range of events for Prostate Cymru and raising awareness. We are grateful for their support and look forward to working with them.
Finally some housekeeping… Prostate Cymru’s address will become 56 Charles Street, Cardiff, CF10 2GG as of the 3rd week in January (20th) and there is a new contact (mobile) phone number – 07745 608275.