King’s Ely Junior raises thousands of pounds for Cancer Research UK

Fantastic fundraisers at King’s Ely Junior (KEJ) have raised almost £18,000 for Cancer Research UK.

KEJ chooses a different charity to support each year – and it is the pupils who decide which beneficiary they will be fundraising for. The children make their suggestions and then, in each house, elections are held, with the charity which receives the most votes becoming the school’s dedicated charity of the year.

Cancer Research UK was the chosen charity this year and a feast of fundraising activities over the last 12 months by pupils, staff, parents and the whole King’s Ely Junior community, including non-uniform days, scrumptious cake sales and the hugely popular inaugural Soapbox Race, have raised just under £18,000.

Fundraising efforts from individual pupils themselves have also contributed to the impressive sum raised, including siblings Charlotte, Florence and Winnie Henderson, who had their long hair cut off into stylish bobs in July, raising almost £6,000 for the charity. The sisters also donated their hair to the Little Princess Trust, a charity which provides real hair wigs to boys and girls across the UK who have sadly lost their own hair due to cancer treatment.

Heidi Connell, senior local fundraising manager for Cancer Research UK, attended King’s Ely’s Michaelmas Mid Term Service at Ely Cathedral on October 20th to collect the bumper cheque and meet some of the pupils and staff who have helped to raise the funds.

She said: “What an incredible year of fundraising King’s Ely Junior has had. We are so grateful to the school community for supporting us in such an enormous way. All of the money raised will be going to the research that is going on in Cambridge right now. Without this fundraising we really couldn’t do the research we are doing, and King’s Ely Junior’s contribution will help us get closer to our ambition that by 2034 three in four people who get diagnosed with cancer will survive.”

Over the last six years, KEJ has raised more than £75,000 for the school’s chosen charities, which include CLIC Sargent, WaterAid and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

The next 12 months will see KEJ raising funds for the Uganda Marathon Appeal, which supports numerous different projects in Uganda, including Mengo Hospital in the capital, Kampala.

Head of King's Ely Junior, Richard Whymark, said: “Joining together to support the work of Cancer Research UK was important to our entire community due to the indiscriminate way many of us have been impacted by cancer. Pupils and parents worked hard with the team at King’s Ely Junior to ensure that the charity was presented with as much as possible and we are delighted that our efforts will support the work going on so locally.”

To find out more about the Uganda Marathon Appeal, please visit www.ugandamarathon.com.