Bob's Super Supper in aid of Action Against Cancer

I was initially introduced to the charity by Professor Justin Stebbing, who was treating me for liver cancer. I wanted to know more, so asked Justin to give me an overview of the charity. He explained that the funds raised were used to support the team he was working with at Imperial College, and that the objective of their work was to find cures. This made the charity different from other cancer charities that were providing care.

I considered ways of raising funds, and decided that I would like to organise a Sports Supper at the golf club of which I am a member. I approached the golf club with my suggestion and obtained approval from them for the first Sports Supper in the club's long history.

The key to running such an event was to identify speakers who would be willing to speak without being paid their normal fees. I was fortunate that my nephew is Andy Gomarsall, the former England scrum half, who played in two Rugby World Cups, and he readily agreed to speak. Through another contact I approached Angus Fraser, the former England Test cricketer, who happens to live in the same area as myself, and again Angus was pleased to support the evening. Lastly I contacted a local professional golfer, Ricky Willison, who I had known for many years, and he also agreed to speak.

We now had the entertainment organised, so the next task was to market the evening to the club's members, business contacts I had, and golfing contacts whom I had known for many years. The objective was to sell 96 tickets, and this was achieved within two weeks of the marketing starting.

The evening proved to be a huge success, with all who attended greatly enjoying the evening, and wondering when could the next one be arranged. The outcome was that the evening raised just over £3500.00.

The lessons I learnt from this project, was that key to running such an event is to find interesting speakers willing to speak without charge, to have a venue which also comes without a charge, and to then work hard on members and anyone within your network to buy tickets. This involves a lot of effort from a lot of people, but in the end the results make it all worthwhile.