Get ideas for your fundraising by reading some of these inspiring stories from some of our ABC UK fundraisers!
On 6th May, during Bladder Cancer Awareness Month,16 colleagues from Salesforce UK set off from London to cycle 490km to Amsterdam, arriving tired but elated in front of the famous Rijksmuseum on the afternoon of the 10th. When the pedals finally stopped turning the amount raised for ABC stood at over £32,000 raised through a combination of individual fundraising, payroll giving and company donation matching. The team made up of Solution Engineers, Account Executives, Success Directors and Technical Architects swapped their desks and laptops for bikes, climbs and open roads as they overcame the hills down to Dover and the windy coastal route across France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Many on the ride were fairly new to cycling, so riding such a long distance was a real achievement.
Rob Lewis, who lost his mother to metastatic bladder cancer in July 2025, helped coordinate the event and took part in the ride. Rob spent many months caring for his mother, who had already overcome uterine and breast cancer earlier in life. He was moved to raise funds following her passing after reading about the work ABC UK does to support those affected by bladder cancer and the vital funds it contributes toward research. After crossing the finish line with a photograph of his mum in his pocket, Rob said: "Knowing my mum, she certainly wouldn't have liked all the fuss but she'd have been proud of our efforts and how much we managed to raise to help those affected by bladder cancer."
72 holes of golf at Aldeburgh in 1 day, in memory of Dave Seabrook, 1973-2025.
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Dave was a work colleague of mine who I first met around 20 years ago. Very bright, charming and articulate. Also very good at his job as a communications planner in a media agency. Much better than me, annoyingly.
We discovered that we both liked to play golf and that we both had a connection to Aldeburgh through our respective parents.
We played in the same annual competition together for 15 years, winning it twice.
He continued to compete hard even after major surgery and treatment during the 4 years he had bladder cancer.
After he passed away, in March this year, I decided I wanted to do something to remember him and to raise money for a cause close to his heart and that of his wife, Elena.
The inspiration came from seeing an ad from MacMillan for ‘The Longest Day' - playing golf from dawn til dusk.
At Dave's memorial service I started my recruitment drive. My first recruit was Hugo, who I hadn't yet met but knew about as Dave's ‘other' golf partner. He immediately agreed and by 6th June 2025, 4 of us were gathering in the early morning light ready to play.
In the meantime, we had been in contact with Elena, and she was the one who chose Action Bladder Cancer UK as our charity.
The venue was Aldeburgh Golf Club, who were hugely supportive of our efforts.
By 9pm that evening we had completed 72 holes of golf, taken around 50,000 steps, and quite a lot of golf shots.
We like to think that Dave was looking down appreciatively!
- Steve Henderson
I chose to raise money for ABC UK in memory of my father-in-law, Alan Matthews, who passed away from bladder cancer in June 2022.
The event itself was actually on his birthday and I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate his life and play a very small part in contributing to the prevention and cure of bladder cancer.
I just started getting out and about in the summer of 2024 and realised how much I loved it, didn't do anything daft, just 10km walks to look at the views etc. I started taking it seriously before Christmas of that year. Just after this, I was basically doing 25km every Sunday morning, which progressed to 25km with a 20kg weights vest on, and a 10km walk every Wednesday evening. I also started walking to Marks and Spencer every lunchtime for a sandwich, which was 2km each way.
I needed to make it personal to ensure I stayed motivated, so given my father-in-law passed away a few years ago, I did it for ABC UK. I couldn't exactly tell my wife I failed because i didn't train hard enough!
My father-in-law had different types of cancer, including bladder cancer, but I wanted to help a charity and disease that perhaps doesn't get the same promotion and coverage as others.
On the Sunday I finished it would have been his 79th birthday, so it felt like it was the right thing to do. We had people over for a celebration when I got back, but I fell asleep at about 4.30pm!
- Adam Deadman
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