The charity meat raffle that takes place every Saturday afternoon at the Merry Harriers has raised many thousands of pounds for local good causes and has become a popular event for villagers.

Starting tomorrow (Sept 27), and for the next eight weeks, it is supporting a newly-launched charity called PROGRESS which provides support for those diagnosed with oesophago-gastric cancers and are being treated at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, a specialist centre for this particularly challenging condition.

I hope villagers will understand why I am keen to promote this fund-raising raffle. In 2017 I was diagnosed with stage 3 oesophageal cancer. A tumour was discovered at the junction of my oesophagus and stomach and I underwent almost 12-hours of surgery at the RSCH. It is one of the biggest and most complex operations performed in hospitals.

Such major life-changing surgery leaves many patients and their families with lasting issues; physical, mental, practical and financial. In many cases this cancer, which is difficult to detect until its later stages, is fatal because it has often spread to other organs by the time it is discovered. For them, surgery is not possible.

Oesophageal cancer, despite significant medical advances in treatment, remains one of three most deadly cancers along with lung and pancreatic cancer. Less than 20 per cent of those diagnosed at stage 3 live for more than five years.

Eight years on, I am still here, and hugely indebted to the excellent care I received from my medical team at RSCH and to my wife, family and friends, many of them here in Hambledon. I had most of my stomach and oesophagus removed, and underwent intense chemotherapy before and after surgery. But I am fit and well – and very fortunate.

I am so pleased that I am now able to give something back. I am a founder Trustee of our new PROGRESS charity, along with three other surviving patients, together with a surgeon, oncologist, specialist nurse and specialist dietitian from the RSCH. Its aims are to increase awareness of this cancer so that it might be detected at an earlier stage and to offer support in whatever form it is needed for patients facing up to this illness and its consequences.

The picure belows shows Nima Abbassi-Ghadi, consultant upper gastro-intestinal surgeon at RSCH at our charity launch this summer. He is one of the eight Trustees.

The Merry Harriers, which donated a meal for two as a raffle prize at our recent launch, has kindly agreed that the meat raffle for the next eight weeks will be a PROGRESS fund-raiser. ALL money taken by sale of raffle tickets goes to the charity.

We begin this Saturday, and the raffle is expected to take place at the half-time interval of the Women’s World Cup Final between England and Canada which is being screened at the pub. This should be at around 4.45pm.

I expect to be joined by several of my Trustee colleagues. Also hoping to be there is Ron Baker, who was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer earlier this year and is recovering from surgery at his Woodland Road home with his wife Christine.

If you would like to know more, we have a website which has been designed and developed by Alpa Cox at a special charity rate, for which we are very grateful. Please take a look at https://www.progresscharity.org/

Please join us this Saturday or in the following weeks. Thank you for any support you can give.