Mike O'Kane
Team Ladbrokes - Project Brazil 2010
Fundraising for Cancer Research UK’s Bobby Moore Fund
Story
Brazil 2010
In the Autumn of 2008 I was lucky enough to have been able to join a Bobby Moore cancer charity trip to Brazil to help build a school for a very poor community. At the time you my colleagues ,industry contacts ,family and friends helped me raise in excess of £10,000.
Last year Ian Welch followed a similar path and with the same charity completed a similar project in a different village in the same part of Brazil.
This year I have excellent news......
A Ladbroke Team consisting of myself ,Ian Welch ,Tony Carroll,William White and Graham Weir will be taking part in the Bobby Moore Fund's 2010 project to Brazil. The aim is as in previous years to raise money for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, and make a real difference to a community that doesn't have the benefits that we have living in the UK.
So where are we going in Brazil and why? I hear you ask.......
The project will involve an 11 day trip ( 26th Sept - 6th Oct) to Bandeira a village in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park which is located on the highest part of the Brazilian Central Plateau.The village school Escola Veredas is insufficient for the village needs and requires extending and upgrading.
At this time due to the poverty in the area and lack of educational facilities older children have to leave their village and find education far away.The hardship for these poor people living in communities away from their families results in few of them returning and the education they receive being of any benefit to the village.Through our work as part of this project we will build an additional classroom, repair, paint existing buildings,and build a shaded playground area for the children.We will also take with us presents of toys books pencils etc which the school desperately needs.
How are donations used?
Quite simply the money we raise and our target as a team is at least £25,000 will cover our travel and accommodation costs .As we are having to live in tents and are provided food by our local hosts the costs associated are low and will still allow us to give nearly £20,000 to fight Bowel Cancer in the UK.
One in three people in the UK will develop cancer at some point during their lifetime, and sadly, this disease claims the lives of one in four. Every year 16,000 people die from bowel cancer alone, making it the second highest cause of cancer death in the UK, after lung cancer. Around 100 new cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed each day in the UK. But despite its prevalence so few people know or talk about this disease.
The Bobby Moore Fund’s mission is to save lives by raising awareness of bowel cancer and to fund research. Bowel cancer is a largely preventable disease and, if caught early enough, nine out of ten people could be successfully treated.
How can you help ?
Simply tell all your friends, colleagues, contacts about what the Ladbroke Team will doing in Brazil and direct them to this website at http://www.justgiving.com/teamladbrokes. It's really easy to donate either by credit or debit card . You can even raise cash or cheques, make them payable to LICCT ,send them to myself or any of the team members and LICCT will aggregate all the donations and pass that amount on to the team.
The target of £25,000 is just that a target and I would be hopeful that the enthusiasm of the team for this project and the generosity of the people we know and work with will help us beat our target.
If you need any further information on this project please don't hesitate to contact any of the team.
Remember any donation will help so don't be shy, visit our website leave a donation and a message , we together with the children of Bandiera and those who in the future may suffer from bowel cancer will all say.... THANK YOU.
Mike O'Kane