Garrett's Headsouth Challenge for CRIS
Garrett Curran is raising money for CRIS Cancer Foundation
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And I'm on my way! With your support and encouragement, I am determined to raise over £130,000 (GBP) for Cris Cancer’s work in Paediatric Cancer Research by supporting their CRISmas appeal. Please see updates below.
I am grateful for the generous support of Corporate sponsors such as Catalina Insurance (£5k), Savills (£5k), and Plastic Energy (£2k) in the UK and Santander Spain (€10k), Altura Markets (€10k), and All Funds (€10k) we have already raised over £40,000. I will match this amount by donating £44,000.
With the funds raised on this page and also in the Spanish version (https://solidarios.criscancer.org/en/fundraisers/la-conquista-del-polo-sur) we are well on our way to raising the ambitious target of £130,000. Your support will help me achieve this.
HOW? I will walk to the South Pole in January to raise funds for Cris Cancer Foundation, a charity of which I am a patron, to fund research into paediatric cancer, specifically into childhood brain tumours - the cancer with the lowest survival rate. I will walk with Lewis Moody (former England International Rugby player and World Cup winner) and 6 of the supporters of the Lewis Moody Foundation, who are similarly raising funds for paediatric cancer research and care for those afflicted by brain tumours. We will be led by Alan Chambers MBE, the UK’s leading polar explorer, with whom I walked to the North Pole in 2004.
All funds raised by me will exclusively support Cris Cancer paediatric brain tumour projects.
Any donation you make to Cris Cancer will be tripled. I will match any donation (up to GBP 44,000) personally, and we are aiming to secure the same matched funding amount from our network of corporate supporters.
So your £1 donation = £1+ £1 from me + £1 from a Corporate = Triple the Impact!
Your generosity will be multiplied to save more lives and defeat cancer!
And if you are a UK taxpayer, with Gift Aid and matching, your £1 becomes £3.25!
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Brain tumours are one of the biggest killers of children and adults under 40 in the UK .10 children and teenagers are diagnosed with a brain tumour every week in the UK. Less than 2% of cancer research funding in the UK is spent on brain tumours.
WHEN? On 31st December, the team will be flying to Punta Arenas, where a Russian transport plane will take us to the Research Centre on the west coast of Antarctica. From the 5th - 15th January 2020, we will set off from the Union Glacier Basecamp and experience first-hand the challenges faced by early explorers and make the incredible journey to the southernmost point on Earth, across one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet, with severe wind chill and storms. The team will complete 10 hours of ice travel for at least 10 days straight, in some of the coldest temperatures on Earth, to reach the Geographic South Pole in one of the most extreme tests of physical and psychological endurance that they will ever experience. We will be active for 8-12 hours each and every day, hauling heavy loads, stopping only to eat every couple of hours.
Cris Cancer Foundation is an international charity that is committed to funding research and projects that are focussed on making major breakthroughs, with discoveries that could impact diagnosis, treatment and survival from childhood cancers.
Garrett is thrilled to be combining his ambition to raise funds for paediatric cancer research, treatment and support, by supporting the CRISmas appeal of CRIS Cancer Foundation along with the Lewis Moody Foundation. With this effort he realises his dream of walking to both Poles.
Garrett is married to Natalia with three children, Sofia, Ines and Hugo, and has lived between London and Madrid for most of the past 25 years. He travelled to the North Pole with HeadSouth lead guide Alan Chambers in 2004 and was part of the infamous “Dysfunctionals” tent crew. Despite his tent’s reputation, they made it to the Pole (courtesy of Alan), fuelled by Tabasco sauce and despite the digestive consequences of excess consumption of Wine Gums.
Through the Curran Family Foundation, Garrett and Natalia support a number of charities spanning Education (with a focus on social mobility), Medical Research (with a focus on funding paediatric research and treatment) and the Arts.