Our fund raising, which culminates in the annual charity day, starts with our February golf day though our Charity Committee meets regularly throughout the year to discuss new ideas.
In recent years we have raised between £17,000 and £32,500 each year. The main focus for the fund raising is to donate to the The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, with donations being made to other similar charities in particular circumstances.
In recognition of our support, The Royal Marsden has invited us to be a Member of the William Marsden Circle, including our name on roll of honour boards in Sutton and Chelsea.
YES - IT’S A RECORD!!
Our Charity Day this year raised a record £32,500 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, taking the total amount we’ve been able to donate to them to £540,000 !!!
We are so grateful for all the support we’ve received in the last 28 years from countless Golf Clubs, along with BAGS members and their guests, especially on our Charity Day.
Mari-Louise White (Senior Community Fundraising Manager) and Ellie Davis (Community Fundraising Executive) at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity said:
"We are so grateful to you all for your generous support of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Thank you also to Andrew for his generous sponsorship and to all of the committee members for the time and dedication put
into making the day such a success. On behalf of all the staff and patients here at The Royal Marsden, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your generous support.”
2023 marks 28 years of our support of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and in the last few years, our fundraising has enabled the purchase of:
The BAGS Charity Committee would like to thank everyone who has been involved, including the players, helpers, clubs who have donated vouchers for rounds of golf for auctions and prize, and the many people and organisations who have sponsored events and donated prizes. The committee will continue to ensure future events are enjoyable and successful so those who are less fortunate than ourselves are given direct support to combat and hopefully conquer their illness.
We did it!!
Our Charity Day this year raised £25,000 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, taking the total amount we have been able to donate to them to over £500,000 !!!
We are so grateful for all the support we have received in the last 27 years from countless Golf Clubs, along with BAGS members and their guests, especially on our Charity Day.
Mari-Louise White (Senior Community Fundraising Manager) at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity said:
"Your kind donation will support a microscope for our robotic surgery and will be used in the two robotic theatres at The Royal Marsden. The hospitals are seeing an increasing demand for robotic surgery, as it allows surgeons to perform procedures with greater precision by providing a magnified, three-dimensional view inside a patient’s body. It also reduces recovery time for patients.”
With the ongoing Covid situation, we decided to delay our annual Charity Day until the end of September in 2021, and this proved to be a good decision.
We used all the resources available to us, including many 4 Ball vouchers kindly donated by golf clubs, and we were able to raise the tremendous amount of £24,205, taking our total over the last 26 years to in excess of £480,000.
Lilly Pye (Community Fundraising Manager) at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity said:
"Your kind donation will support the funding of a Cardiac Output Monitor (LiDCO). This provides clinicians a second-by-second analysis of the flow of blood around the body by obtaining measurements from the patient’s pulse rate and cannulas inserted into arteries. This enables clinicians to tailor treatment to a patient’s symptoms and provide them with exactly the right amount of medication.
Thanks to your support we are also able to fund a Portacount Face Mask Fit Test System to more accurately fit test staff who are required to wear respiratory protection. This piece of equipment will allow staff to get effectively fit tested, maintaining safety, and enable us to comply with Health and Safety requirements."
Lydia, from The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, said: "We are so grateful for BAGS' continued support for The Royal Marsden, and for all of the hard work that goes into making the charity activities a huge success each year. The money raised in 2019 will fund three Neoprobes, which are used as part of a surgical procedure to help the oncology team determine whether cancer has spread beyond the primary tumour into the lymphatic system. We look forward to working with BAGS again next year to raise even more vital funds for The Royal Marsden".
Lydia, from The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, said: "On behalf of everyone at The Royal Marsden I'd like to say a huge thank you to Bookham Amateur Golf Society for once again raising an amazing amount. This year the money will help fund a dual-energy X-ray absorption (Dexa) scanner, which will measure bone mineral density and can help detect if cancer has spread to the bones. This will make a huge difference to patients at both the Sutton and Chelsea Royal Marsden sites."
Aaron, from The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, said: "We are so grateful to Bookham Amateur Golf Society for raising an incredible £30,000 for us, which will help support our Robotic Surgery Fellowship programme. This new programme is the first of its kind in the country, training the next generation of surgeons to use our state-of-the-art surgical robots."
Last year we had the opportunity to fund a complete project which was looking at more personalised treatment of a particularly aggressive cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. This cancer affects children and adolescents, where the survival rate is poor, and the goal is to improve the outcome for these patients.
Our record amount of £28,000 last year provided the money to set up new patient derived models by using fresh tumour samples donated by patients at the Royal Marsden, and to date one model is now fully established and 3 more are at various stages of the development process. Over the coming year, the aim is to continue the current development, and to start making one or two additional models, in order to produce new and better treatments for patients. The results will then be part of a shared national and international resource.
This project is being run jointly by the Royal Marsden and the Institute for Cancer Research, and the photograph below shows members of the project team receiving the balance of £23,000 from BAGS, following the initial £:5000 from Mike Christieson of Atlantic Trading
The Oak Centre for Children and Young People at The Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton is a state-of-the-art specialist cancer treatment facility where recent advances in technology and internationally forefront research combine for the benefit of their young cancer patients in a comprehensive way. Treatment is tailored to each young patient's specific needs and administered within a family-centred environment where health, educational and social needs are embraced by a strong multidisciplinary team.
When the young patients arrive to be admitted, the team have to get them into their rooms as quickly as possible to minimise stress and infection. However, before they can be admitted their rooms have to be 'deep cleaned' to ensure that there is minimal risk of infection from C.diff or MRSA, germs can kill these vulnerable young patients. A deep clean can take 2 - 4 hours or even longer if the cleaning team are busy elsewhere.
120 hospitals in the USA are now using a piece of equipment which can reduce this cleaning time to 10 - 20 minutes and clean to a 99.9% level free of problems. (It even gets into corners and all the little nooks and crannies.) This ensures a quick transition to the ward to the benefit of the patient. This innovative piece of kit is a Clinell UV-360.As you'd expect, this equipment is expensive but its impact on young lives whilst at their lowest is considerable.
We are delighted that the proceeds of the 2015 BAGS Romain Royal Marsden Charity Day will help purchase this vital piece of equipment for the Royal Marsden.
A letter of thanks has been received from Kamran's Ward in Oxford which benefited from the kind donation of £2000 as part of BAGS fund raising in 2013. The money has helped establish a teenager facility and an outdoor area. The children in the ward are often there for days or even weeks at a time and because the chemotherapy drugs are very toxic they can not leave the ward for a wander around the hospital or to go outside.
The teenager room allows the older children to enjoy an environment which feels more grown up than the rest of the ward and includes an outdoor decking area which was very welcome this summer. The photos below show Peter Marshall making the most of the facilities and beating his Dad at table tennis even while connected to his drip.
Chairman Roger Boychuk opened Turf Moor Links with a scintillating round on Friday August 23rd 2013. He will hold that course record because the par of the course has been changed over the weekend to 56 and Andy Harper now holds the course record with a 57. It is a challenging course and a test for any golfer so come along next weekend 30th and 31st August and Sept 1st - all profits to our charity - it takes 20 minutes to play followed by a long chat over a cuppa and super home-made cake or bacon rolls in the 19th cafe run by Chris Little.
The project raised a magnificent £1050 from BAGS members and other friends of the Littles and Chris is shown presenting the cheque to Amanda at the Royal Marsden.
Chris & Steve wish to thank all those involved for their support in this project. We congratulate them both on this initiative which has provided fun for the participants and valuable funds for the RM.
Official Video
BAGS included in the list of supporters in the entrance hall.
North Hants (NH) Tues 23 Jan
Hankley Common (HC) Tues 20 Feb
New Zealand (NZ) Tues 19 Mar
Hayling Island (HI) Tues 23 Apr
Army (Ar) Thu 23 May
Betchworth Park (BP) Thu 13th Jun
The Dyke (TD) Thu 18 July
Crowborough Beacon (CB) Thu 15 Aug
Tour Belgium 2nd-5th Sept
West Sussex (WS) Wed 2 Oct
Blackmoor (BM) Mon 4 Nov
Worplesdon (WP) Mon 2 Dec
Knockouts
Chairman's
Treasurer's
Memorial Trophy