UOG Lacrosse club captain Beth Blake says that the charity Macmillan is very personal to her.
The Laxathon finishes at 8pm on Friday, with the UOG Lacrosse team playing for 12 consecutive hours to raise money for charity.
This year, they are fundraising for Macmillan, a charity that helps everyone affected by cancer to live life as fully as they can, by providing physical, financial and emotional support.
Blake mentioned that raising money for the charity hits close to home as it´s supported her throughout the years.
“A couple of years ago, a family friend died of cancer, and she had the support from Macmillan, then this summer, my grandmother died of a brain tumour,” she said.
“It was quite quick, it was all quite scary, but the hospice that helped us were supported by the Macmillan nurses, so if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have had the support that we had to make the process easier.”
In 2023 Macmillan estimated to have helped 2.3 million people with all their services.
“It’s a charity really close to a lot of our hearts. They’ve helped a lot of us out when we’ve needed it with families and situations. Obviously, cancer’s not a nice thing. So the fact that we´ve had the support from them is really important.
“We just decided to try and raise as much money for them as possible as a thank you to them.”
This is not the first time that they have done this, “It’s kind of a tradition that we do in the club. We’ve done it for a couple of years, and obviously we put more effort into raising money for such a good cause that’s so close to our hearts.”
The Lacrosse girls are not only raising money for the charity during Laxathon, but they do a “12 days of Christmas” where every day they do something different to raise as much money as they can.
“Each day is very important,” she stated.
“We wore green to training to raise awareness, Sunday we’re doing a marathon between the club, so we’re running the distance, bring a friend to charity, all sorts of things really.”
“Not every day is directly for Macmillan, as some days we are donating food to the foodbank, giving clothes away to charity shops or just being active on social media to get lots of involvement, but it’s always for a great cause!
“Hopefully we will make people happy with the money we raise during the Christmas period.”
An event such as this takes a lot of organising and help and that’s something that Blake has had from the whole committee which have been really hands on giving her captain a hand.
“It hasn’t been stressful, I’m lucky that I have a committee that are really helpful.
“My vice-captain, Gal, is really supportive and the rest of the committee are too. I think also because it means a lot to them as well, and it’s important to all of us for it to go as good as it can.
“We’re all chipping in, and the rest of the team are also really wanting to do it,” she said.
“Right now, we’ve got one of our recreational members. Later on, when people finish lectures, they’re coming down to help out during the day too.
“We are also getting other clubs at the uni to come and give lacrosse a go, which is so good to see how involved other teams want to be with this cause.”
The team are currently halfway of their £300 goal. “Everyone’s sending the link to families and friends. Hopefully we can raise a lot.
“I think we’re at 180 pounds over halfway through, so we’ve got a 400-pound target. Hopefully we can smash that and potentially raise 500.”
Please donate if you can! It really means a lot to these girls
