I lost my grandad at the back end of 2020 having suffered with Dementia for the last 5 or so years of his life (fully appreciate many have been living with this horrific disease for much longer). I had been contemplating doing something to raise some money for research towards battling it.

Some of my fondest memories with him were associated with our mutual love of Cricket (also involving my dad and sister) and therefore this became the starting point for the idea of Runs4Research. Playing club cricket regularly, my idea was that local cricketers commit to a donation at the end of the season based on how may runs they score or wickets they take during that season.

These amounts would be minimal (5p per run, 50p per wicket) but across the season would accumulate to a donation that feels substantial enough come September but not so significant that they feel unduly out of pocket (despite the good cause).

Our initiative went live ahead of the 2021 season with a target to get 100 players involved, raising £1,000 and remarkably, this was hit for 6 (apologies for the terrible pun). The finalised totals following the season saw 257 club cricketers signup donating just short of £6,000 which is incredible to think about, even now. In 2022 we followed this up with 533 players raising more £11,000

For such a seemingly simple idea, the potential for this to grow even larger in 2023 is so exciting to think about so I urge everyone reading this, get involved and continue to share our idea.