Koi themed fund raiser for Cancer Research UK is a big success!

Do you remember the impromptu charity auction we ran last year? Overjoyed with the prizes our home bred koi won at the South of England koi show and with Kangei Koi Club visiting us the following weekend, we leveraged the pond visit and auctioned off some home bred koi and raised £440 for Cancer Research UK. Not bad, but it inspired us to want to do better….

This year, we set out to raise a lot more money and went for the tried and tested formula of putting on a bbq and drinks, and offering simple, fun ‘have-a-go’ style games for people to enjoy during the event. Add to that a raffle and an auction.. and there you have it.

We ran the event last weekend to raise money for Cancer Research UK, and were supported by so many people, attending, donating and supporting. Together, we raised £3582.16 ! Just fantastic.

The message of the day....

We were joined by 100 people who made the journey from around the country, representing 9 koi clubs:

Cambridgeshire Koi Club
Celtic Koi Club
Dorset Koi Keepers
Kangei Koi Club
Northamptonshire Koi Club
South Downs Koi Club
South Hants Koi Club
Yorkshire Koi Club
Witham Valley Koi Club

Great support , with koi clubs from around the country attending

And the support from the koi industry and our local communities was fantastic. From the industry, Mark Davis, Mark Gardner, and Mike Snaden all attended in person! There was broad support from around the koi industry with donations coming in from (alphabetical order):

Avenue Fisheries - 10kg growth koi food
Cuttlebrook Koi Farm - 4 x boxes of tosai, hand selected by Mark Davis
Himitsu Pond and Garden - 8 x 2kg packs of Himitsu koi food
JKC - 43cm Matsue Sanke
Absolute Koi - jointly with Kevin Ellis, 2 x I Kazuto Showa Tosai
Koi Logic - 15kg sack of Ogata Performance Special Koi Food
Koi Water Barn - 32cm Jumbo Sakai Tosai Kohaku, and 2 koi keeping books
Mark Gardner - 13 of his films on DVD, plus lots of items from Japan including 2 koi keeping books
Oase - Oase Pond Vac
World of Water - £50 voucher
Yume Koi - 54cm Male Takigawa Kohaku

A few hobbyists donated items for our auction too (alphabetical order):
Adam and Amanda Byer - £75 Avenue Fisheries voucher
Craig Emery - 32cm Marudo Gin Rin Showa
Ian and Carmen Jenkins - 10kg Medi Carp Color Enhancer
Juliet Rogove - Champagne Bucket, and Champagne
Kevin Ellis - as mentioned above, jointly with Absolute Koi, 2 x I Kazuto Showa Tosai
Richard Nice - Koi Painting, by Richard Nice

Our local community in the Chesham area were amazing, with the following retailers donating items (alphabetical order):

Harvey Johns Toy Shop, Chesham
Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, Chesham
Pearces Hardware Shop, Chesham
Pet Essentials, Chesham
Sainsbury's
Sophie's, Chesham
Tesco
The Flower Box, Chesham
Waterstones

We had some kind contributions that helped Amanda and I with the cost of running the event from:

Equipment lends from First Tylers Hill Cubs, and Ley Hill Primary School PTA
Drinks contribution from Ian and Carmen Jenkins
BBQ meat discount from Goddens Butchers, Chesham

And we couldn’t have put it on without Sarah Gordon, Nigel and Corrine Bream and Richard Nice giving up their day to help us run the event. We are incredibly proud of our young family too, with our children helping at the entry desk, selling raffle tickets, cooking the sausages – and even calling out the winning raffle tickets!

Our liaison at Cancer Research UK, Chelsea Birkby, said we’d raised ‘an astonishing amount’

Thank you to everyone involved!

Many thanks to photographer Mark Gardner ( FB Page , Blog ) for the photos, a few shown below.

Our son, the budding chef, on BBQ duty

Reflecting on why we gathered for the fund raiser - the fantastic work Cancer Research UK are doing, and local and national communities coming together to support the event. Every pound spent on the day and donated in advance, went straight into the pot for the charity.

Best wishes.

Adam and Amanda Byer