Four friends from the Fylde who took part in a gruelling ‘Longest Day’ golf challenge, in memory of one of their dads who recently died from cancer, are ‘on course’ to raise over £2,500 for charity.
The ‘fore-midable’ team consisted of Jon Alder, Alan Kirkham, Allan Wilson and Darren Lees, who played 72 holes in just one day in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Their team, called ‘Full Steam Ahead’, was named in tribute to Jon’s dad David, from Bentham, who was a steam train enthusiast, but sadly passed away from bile duct cancer earlier this year.
They teed-off at Poulton-le-Fylde Golf Club at 4am and finished their four rounds 15 hours later at 7pm, after walking more than 25 miles on the day. And, so far, they have raised £2,500 in total, thanks to an extra £1,000 in matched funding from Barclays Bank.
Jon Alder, a business manager at Barclays, said: “My dad received a lot of help and support from Macmillan, who were incredible with the whole family. Unfortunately, a lot of our family and friends have also been affected by cancer, and they received fantastic support from Macmillan. So, we thought it was the right thing to do and give something back and help Macmillan support other families affected by cancer.
“It was a very long and very tiring day, and we all had sore feet at the end of the challenge. But we also had lots of fun, and played some decent golf, even managing a couple of birdies, whilst also raising such an incredible sum for such a worthwhile cause. In fact, we all had such a great time that we are looking forward to doing it all again next year! And we’d also like to thank the golf club and all our family and friends for their invaluable support.”
Macmillan’s Longest Day Golf Challenge, which is now in its 22nd year, encourages teams of mates to play four rounds of golf in 24 hours. And the top four fundraising teams from across the country will get the chance to win a free three-night trip to Portugal to compete for the Longest Day Golf Challenge trophy.
