Supporting Velindre through the Hugh James charity padel tournament

We are raising money for Velindre, which provides specialist cancer services and support to patients and families across Wales and beyond. Velindre is also a corporate charity partner of Hugh James, and we are proud to support its vital work.

As part of our fundraising, Hugh James is hosting a charity padel tournament at Padium in Cardiff Bay Retail Park. The event will bring together clients, contacts and colleagues for an afternoon of padel, networking and fundraising.

Companies taking part in the tournament are asked to donate £200 per pair through this page. When donating, please include your company name so we can match your donation to your tournament entry.

The padel tournament forms part of a wider fundraising challenge by Hugh James colleagues Aaron Gwyn and Sophie-May Lewis, who will be swimming around the Statue of Liberty next summer to raise further funds for Velindre.

Every donation, whether linked to the tournament or the swim, will help support Velindre’s important work. Thank you for your support.

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Our Statue of Liberty Swim

In June 2027, we’ll be heading to New York City to take part in the Velindre Cancer Charity Statue of Liberty Swim, completing both the 1-mile loop around the Statue of Liberty and the 2-mile crossing of the Hudson River.

We’re taking this on from very different starting points.

Sophie-May only learned to swim properly at the start of 2025. At that point, she couldn’t swim any real distance and certainly couldn’t swim 25 metres confidently in a shallow pool. She had taken up triathlon, but open water was something she genuinely feared.

Aaron swam competitively as a child, but had not swam for decades. Together, we took on the challenge of triathlon and started rebuilding our confidence, fitness and relationship with swimming.

Eighteen months later, we’re now training together for two open-water swims in one of the world’s busiest harbours. Not because the fear has disappeared, but because we decided it should not be the thing that stops us.

This challenge follows a spinathon we completed in July 2025, cycling 193 miles from Cardiff to York on a stationary bike in under six hours and raising more than £600. That experience showed us what shared determination, a bit of stubbornness and a good cause can achieve.

We wanted our next challenge to properly test us, both physically and mentally, while raising money for a cause that matters. Almost everyone we know has been touched by cancer in some way, and Velindre Cancer Charity is there for people and families at some of the hardest moments of their lives.

Velindre provides vital care, treatment and support to cancer patients and their families, funding areas such as clinical trials, specialist nursing care and emotional support. Every pound raised through this challenge will help support that work, including Velindre’s clinical trials programme, which currently has more than 40 active trials, and specialist cancer nurses who support patients throughout treatment.

Our target for this challenge is £7,600. Any support you can offer, whether a donation or just some encouragement along the way, means a great deal as we take this on. Thank you.