Fundraising Events

Harry’s own cancer fundraising efforts started in 1999 when he ran the London Marathon – in 4hrs 10min – during a period when he was undergoing serious chemotherapy and alternative medical treatment for his sickness and experiencing a minor virus. Since Harry’s passing, the HMCRT has supported numerous events and in 2003 donated £20,000 towards the acquisition of a £100,000 Laser Dissecting Microscope currently in daily use at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

C.U.B.C. competes in the 4th China International Universities Regatta at the Shanghai Water Sports Center in Qingpu, Shanghai Municipality

Summary: The competitiveness of the event's hosts, Beijing's Tsinghua and Beida University crews and boats from Shanghai's Jiaotong and Fudan Universities have advanced significantly since the event's founding in 2000 where racing in Beijing placed the foreign crews at an open water advantage. Mirroring China's Olympic rise across various sporting codes, rowing included, this year the tables were turned. Though Cambridge managed to beat crews from UL, Harvard and Yale by margins of no less than 33 seconds they remained a length off the Chinese crews, who celebrated with...... fireworks! HMCRT representative John O'Loghlen attended the event from his residence in Beijing and presented the CUBC with Murphy and Nye team dress shirts and then quietly retreated back to the Capital to "save face" in light of the Middle Kingdom's rout of the event. Pictures of the crew, fashion and fireworks attached, courtesy of attendees Kieran West and Bernd Heidicker

SEPT 2008 C.U.B.C. VICTORIOUS IN HARRY MAHON MEMORIAL TROPHY "GREAT RACE" EVENT IN NEW ZEALAND AND HMCRT SUPPORTS C.U.B.C IN THE 4TH CHINA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITIES REGATTA IN SHANGHAI

Summary: Cambridge University men’s rowing eight recently took out the Harry Mahon Memorial Trophy at the Gallagher Great Race on the Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand. The organisers of the event, through the King St Great Race Ball, fundraised for the Harry Mahon Cancer Research Trust. The masquerade ball featured a silent auction where attendees could bid on celebrity signed memorabilia and $3,000 was raised from the evening. "We are proud to contribute to the Mahon Trust" said Rob Hamill, Director of the Gallagher Great Race. "Harry was one of New Zealand’s best rowing coaches. He had strong links to both New Zealand and British rowing and that always makes the racing against the light blues of Cambridge all the more special." This year the University of Waikato men’s crew was touted as favourites, with Cambridge having lost the race in 2002 and 2006, but an enthusiastic Cambridge crew managed to even the score board and secured their second ever win against Waikato. Watching the racing was light blue oldboy Chris Barton. Barton, a friend of the Gallagher Great Race, who was a Cambridge University Blue and British Olympian in 1948, donated a further $1,000 to the Mahon Trust. Having travelled up from his current hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, Barton was thrilled to mingle with the current Cambridge crop and reminisce his Boat Club days with an old friend Donald Leggett. For video footage of the 2008 race please go to www.thegreatrace.co.nz/video.php

2008 DONATION EVENT - CANCER RESEARCH EQUIPMENT DONATION TO DR. VINCENZO CERUNDOLO AND STAFF AT JOHN RADCLIFFE HOSPITAL BY HMCRT CO-FOUNDER DONALD LEGGET

Summary: The HMCRT is pleased to have visited the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford University and formally presented funds to finance the ongoing purchase of start-of-the-art HPLC equipment. Photos from the event as well as a summary of the IDO work are below.






Summary of IDO Work: The immune system is important for protection not only from pathogens but also from development of tumours. Cells from the immune system patrol the body looking for the presence of viruses, bacteria or cancerous cells and under normal circumstances, eradicating them. However, cancers can develop different mechanisms allowing them to hide or prevent the immune system from attacking them, which allows the cancer to grow. One of the methods that cancers sometimes use is by producing a protein, an enzyme called IDO (Indoleamine-2,3 dioxygenase). IDO is commonly found in a large number of different types of cancer cells, including liver cancer and melanoma (skin cancer), and studies have shown that patients whose cancers expressed IDO had a worse prognosis than those in whom the tumours did not. The function of IDO is to degrade tryptophan, an essential amino acid that cannot be synthesised within the body and must be supplied through the diet. The supply of amino acids such as tryptophan is critical for all cells to make proteins, allowing them to function properly. The presence of IDO within a tumour means that it degrades tryptophan and as a result the amount of tryptophan present near to the tumour is dramatically reduced. In such a hostile environment, other cells are essentially starved of this key nutrient and are unable to survive and function properly, while the tumour remains resistant. This includes cells from the immune system and the tumour can grow and the immune system is unable to do anything about it. In our laboratory, we are currently researching ways to inhibit IDO function to allow the immune system to effectively target such cancers. The state-of-the-art HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) machine purchased through kind donation from the Henry Mahon Cancer Research Trust will allow us measure with a high degree of accuracy the function of IDO using cell culture based assays and also with patient samples and allow us to screen for effective novel IDO inhibitors. These novel treatments could hopefully be used in combination with existing therapies such as chemotherapeutic agents and also potentially with cancer vaccines that are currently being developed within our laboratory.

2007 FUNDRAISING EVENT - DARREN RHODES' ROWATHON SEPTEMBER 30th LAKE DORNEY TO RAISE AWARENESS FOR CANCER TREATMENT

Summary: On September 30th Darren, an oarsman from the Henley Rowing Club, will compete in an ergometer rowathon at Dorney Lake in Windsor, home of the 2006 World Rowing Champs. The HMCRT is pleased to support Darren as he races 4K on an ergometer, switches to a 30K bike ride and finishes with a 7.5K run.

In the last 9 months the HMCRT has raised £2,800. Darren's efforts are aimed at helping us raise to another £1,200 to finalize the purchase of a Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC) device, a tool for the development of anti-cancer vaccines. Read about the device

2006 Fundraising Event - 1,200km solo ride through the mountains and deserts of Oman

Summary: On Monday, November 27th, Richard McElroy
completed the 1200km solo ride. Details of the completed route
as well as photos are displayed below.









Original Challenge: On 19th November, HMCRT's Richard McElroy (Goldie 2000-2002) will attempt to ride 1,200 km, solo, and unsupported, through the mountains and deserts of Oman from its capital, Muscat, to the ancient city of Salalah, close to the Yemeni border. There is no record of this route having been attempted by an individual rider (the Oman Cycling Association confirms that an Australian duo completed the ride in 12 days in 1998).
	Richard’s route will take him over the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains)- defended by the SAS in 1959 for the Sultan of Oman from Communist rebels - before following the Gulf of Oman’s coast to the town of Sur.
	He will then ride on unpaved tracks across the edge of the Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter), first mapped by Wilfred Thesiger (Oxford boxing blue and SAS) in the late 1940s.
	This route will take him along the Arabian Sea’s coast for 700km bringing him to the Dhofar region and the Qara Mountains which he must cross before arriving in Salalah, the reputed home of the Queen of Sheba.
In keeping with the methods used by the original explorers of this region, he will live in the desert and will be entirely self sufficient, bringing all supplies with him other than water.
Please visit our event sponsor

2005 Fundraising Event - Kinabalu Mountain Run Challenge: Race report and results

Summary: HMCRT's John O'Loghlen Finishes 44th of 122 starters in the 19th Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon, finishing in 4 hours and 38 minutes, 8 minutes outside the "BuffSkyRunners" world circuit course cut-off time. John also sneaked in to be one of only 47 competitors to summit 4095m Mt. Kinabalu by reaching the 7.5km mark at 3668m on pace to reach the peak within the 2 hour 30 minutes cut off time. Ultimately John missed the aggressive cut off time posting 2:43 to the summit but made up time on the descent to cut his deficit to 8 minutes and place 44th overall.

Final Placing: 44th

Summit Time: 2:43 (8.5km mark, 4091m - race starts at 1830m)

Finish Time: 4:38 (22km mark, race finishes at 1560m)

Men's Winning time: 2:41 (summit in 1:38 Ricardo Meija, Mexico)

Mt. Kinabalu on race morning taken from the finish line area

John O'Loghlen completes the "world's toughest mountain run"

Full Race Report and Results (PDF)

The Trust would like to sincerely thank all those who have contributed generously over the last 4 years and looks forward to forging more strong ties with a growing community of supporters into the future. All your support assists in the continuation of Harry's bold fight against cancer.

Previous fundraising efforts

June 2004 - Rosa Volz and John O'Loghlen Mongolia Marathon

John O'Loghlen places 3rd in Men's marathon (first non-Mongolian!)

Rosa Volz places 2nd in Women's marathon (first non-Mongolian!)

Amount raised: GBP 7,000
Rosa came in second with a time of 6h20m, the first non-Mongolian woman to finish, while John finished in third place with a time of 5h20m, the first non-Mongolian to finish the marathon.
HMCRT Mongolia team overview (PDF)
www.ultramongolia.com

September – November 2002: Pete Beer Florida to California 4,635 Mile Cancer Cycle


The start: Pete Beer and Al Walford at St. Augustine, Florida	The finish: just south of San Francisco, California

Amount raised: GBP 10,000

Elsewhere in the site

Making a donation

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