CYCLISTS across Evesham and Pershore are being invited to saddle up and join our reporter Ross Crawford in raising money for the Rory the Robot campaign.
Ross, the editor of our sister title the Redditch Standard, has signed up to join the sponsored Ride for Rory cycle event.
To be held this Sunday, April 22, two distances are on offer, an 18-mile ride for social cyclists and families, and a longer 57- mile route for those who fancy stretching their legs around the county.
Both start and finish at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
The aim is to raise cash for the state-of-the-art Rory the Robot, a hi-tech robotic surgical machine designed to tackle prostate cancer – now the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK.
Rory will be based at the Alex, which is already home to a world-class urology team. He’ll cost in the region of £1.6million and already a quarter of the sum has been raised – enough to have him sited in Redditch pending approval by the West Midlands Regional Specialist Commission.
“Rory the Robot is incredibly significant, not just for the Alex but for all of Worcestershire,” said Ross.
“In this county alone around 500 men are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer and the latest figures – for 2015 – show that nearly 12,000 men died in the UK from the condition.”
The Rory the Robot campaign has received backing from across the county and beyond from organisations like the Worcestershire Ambassadors and Redditch Lions while the campaign is headed up by local businessman Ian Jukes, himself a prostate cancer survivor.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is also fully behind the campaign.
The Ride for Rory event costs £10 for adults, £5 for children (over-12s only, under-16s must be accompanied by an adult).
Registration is from 9am with the longer route heading off at 10am and the shorter one at 10.30am.
For more information and to register, call Nicky Langford on 01905 768954 or e-mail [email protected].
For more on Rory the Robot visit http://www.rorytherobot.com/
