A charity event held at iceSheffield has skated to success to raise funds for a leading cancer hospital charity in Sheffield.
Sutton Sting ice hockey club, based in Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, has raised a staggering £32,000 for Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity.
The Club is made up of amateur skaters aged between five and 55 years old and the ‘Pro-Am’ event was organised by club founders Gary Apsley and Ian Johnson who made all of the arrangements as ‘Fat Dad Promotions’.
The one-off game saw teams of professional and amateur skaters go up against each other to battle it out for the Shepherd Charity Trophy at Sheffield International Venues managed iceSheffield.
Professionals were even flown in from the US and Canada to compete at the event, which saw funds raised through sponsorship and ticket sales.
Gary said: “The event was a huge success and we are thrilled to hand over this cheque to such a great cause. It took us more than nine months to organise, which was hard work, but it was definitely worth it in the end!
“Weston Park is a fantastic hospital which provides exceptional care and support to patients and their families. Ian’s family has been touched by cancer so has first hand knowledge of the hospital and we wanted to give something back to those who helped.”
Added Ian: “We learnt so much from hosting this event and we know we can repeat the success, now that we have taken over the Sheffield Scimitars we will be able to do more work for the Charity.”
Rachel Thorpe, director at Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, said: “We are extremely grateful to the contribution that Ian and Gary have made to Weston Park. They clearly worked extremely hard to organise the event and it is great to see that their efforts paid off. We rely a lot on donations from kind members of the public because, without them, we wouldn’t be able to raise funds for research into cancer treatments.”
For further details and fundraising opportunities visit http://www.wphcancercharity.org.uk.
