Rugby player and Patron Joe Gray completes lockdown challenge raising over £5,000

Professional rugby player and Patron Joe Gray has successfully finished his lockdown challenge, raising over £5,000 for us.

Joe committed to doing 200 updowns a day during lockdown whilst he was unable to play rugby. His incredible challenge lasted 49 days and saw him completing 10,000 updowns overall, doing 400 on the final day to make sure he hit the 10k mark. Fellow rugby players and friends supported Joe throughout, with almost 200 others taking part too. Joe said:

I started doing 200 updowns a day during lockdown as a challenge in memory of my dad, Paul Gray, who sadly passed away in early March due to bowel cancer. I picked something I thought my dad would like, as he always liked me pushing myself. It’s been brutal and I’ve definitely found this a mental challenge as much as it has been a physical one. The funcan draising has all been for Bowel Cancer UK, an amazing charity that I’m proud to be a Patron for.

It’s important to make sure that your parents and grandparents are getting screened for the disease. There’s a free NHS test that gets sent in the post to people of a certain age. My dad did the screening test at the earliest point he could and then found out he had bowel cancer, but sadly for him it was too late. But for most people, if you diagnose the cancer early enough, you will be able to treat it so make sure you get your loved ones to do the test.

We're so grateful for all the awareness raising and support he’s been able to achieve throughout his challenge. As our new Patron, we look forward to working together more in the future to help stop people dying from bowel cancer. Joe’s fundraising page can be found here.

Feeling inspired?

If you're inspired to do something similar then do get in touch with the fundraising team at community@bowelcanceruk.org.uk, we would love to hear your ideas.

Or take a look at some virtual options here: