ABR Festival goers dig deep for prostate cancer charity fundraiser
Kind-hearted motorcyclists came together to raise almost ÂŁ1275 for charity in a matter of hours at this year's Adventure Bike Rider (ABR) Festival.
The ÂŁ1275 total was raised through the sale of straw hats by CFMoto UK in support of Prost8 UK, after Andy Marksman of the Lincolnshire-based company used the event to raise both funds and awareness of the disease.
Andy was diagnosed with prostate cancer himself two years ago and, having arrived with 200 hats to sell across the four-day event, his entire stock had gone by Thursday evening, despite it traditionally being the quietest day of the festival – so keen was the appetite of attendees to chip in and get involved.
Even after all the hats had gone, the demand to chip in for the good cause remained tangible across the weekend, and donations continued to arrive despite there being no headwear in return.
"It's very humbling meeting strangers who are quite happy to sit and talk with you and give you money for a cause that's obviously very important to me," Andy told ADV247.
"One in eight men will get prostate cancer. One in four Black men will get prostate cancer," he said. "It's vitally important that we make people aware that the testing isn't the finger test anymore. It's a blood test to start with, and it's easy. A few seconds' discomfort could save your life. It has done mine.
“There was a chap I spoke to who tested positive. He put his results on his Facebook page, not for sympathy or to raise money, just to alert people. Sixteen of his friends got tested on the back of his post and three of them were positive. Now they're receiving treatment. It just goes to prove that if we talk about it instead of bottling it up, we get the message out there and people get the test.
“There was another chap I got talking to, probably in his forties. It transpired that he has two years left to live because he has leukaemia. He was quite happy to put way more than the suggested donation in the pot. It's very humbling that somebody who's got a problem that's way worse than mine – because mine's low grade – is happy to give money to something that has nothing to do with him.
“I have noticed, even in the short distance between last year and now, that there's less reluctance to talk about it. Blokes are happy to open up now. If we can just save a few of the thousands of people diagnosed positive in the UK each year, that’ll be a massive result.”
Harry and the CFMoto team have already confirmed plans to return to ABR next year armed with a “van full” of hats to support an even bigger fundraising appeal.
