Humbled by charity events (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Humbled by charity events

9:06pm Sunday 14th September 2008

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Another weekend of charity events in which I can only take my hat off to organisers and participants in brilliant fund-raising ventures.

I did my bit, of course, chipping in when the appropriate time arose and, indeed, got a good deal of satisfaction in being even slightly involved in the good-cause events.

I missed out again, though, on two attempts to garner some goodies in the auction at Friday night’s event.

I’m just not tough enough, I reckon, to stick to my guns and bid that bit higher… or maybe I’m just a bit too careful with my brass!

But it was great fun again, and the event - a ball in aid of Mul-tiple Sclerosis research organ-ised in lieu of a 30th birthday party - raised several thousand pounds.

Fantastic effort.

Then, on Sunday, I joined a merry band of supporters cheering on more than 1,300 runners taking part in the Harewood House Cancer Research UK 10K run, among whom was our daughter, running her aunt's memory, and her friend.

Again, the organisation was fantastic, and the effort put in by each and every runner to raise tens of thousands of pounds for the charity was humbling.

From the front runners to those bringing up the rear, I was amazed at the sheer gutsiness of everyone involved.

While the run was going on, we chatted with a professor who heads up the research in Leeds, and very interesting it was too.

Smoking, he told me, accounts for a huge.. a vast… percentage of the most-difficult-to-cure cancers. Those of the lungs, pancreas and oesophagus.

If those who continue to smoke had just an inkling of the statistics working heavily against their survival when cancer strikes, they wouldn’t light up another ciggie ever again.