Paddle boarding duo’s ‘heroic efforts’ in Scotland bring successful Hassocks Goes Gold month to a close

Jamie BartlettBundy and John Bartlett completed their Paddle4Pearl challenge at the beginning of October, pushing through torrential rain that stopped trains.

They covered 100km from Bowling Harbour on the west coast to Edinburgh on the east.

Hassocks Goes Gold creator Rachel BartlettBundy said: “Covering first the Forth and Clyde Canal and then the Union Canal, their journey took in 20 locks, several tunnels, high aqueducts and navigation of the Falkirk Wheel. Their heroic efforts were the finale of an amazing month of fundraising from Jamie’s home village of Hassocks, raising funds for research into Childhood Cancer.”

Jamie and Rachel lost their ten-year-old daughter Pearl to Ewing’s sarcoma in 2017 and have been fundraising ever since to help research into kinder and more effective treatments for childhood cancer. Visit specialnamedfunds.cclg.org.uk/pearlpower.

Rachel told the Middy that, to date, the #PearlPower fund, overseen by the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, has raised enough to fund two new research projects for kinder treatments.

She said: “With the efforts of this year’s Hassocks Goes Gold campaign raising over £13,000 and the recent Paddle4Pearl they have smashed incredible milestone of £100K.”

People can still visit this year’s JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/page/hgg2023 or find out more at www.facebook.com/groups/hassocksgoesgold.

The theme of this year’s Hassocks Goes Gold was Golden Teddies. Proceeds from poster sales went to help Teddy & the Big C, a campaign in aid of Teddy Lichten, a little boy from Hassocks who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma last year. Visit www.facebook.com/TeddyBigC.

Rachel said: “September is always an exhausting but very exciting month of gold in Hassocks, and the Scottish paddle boarding adventure has been a wonderful finale. Although the reason behind our fundraising is the worst tragedy for our family it’s really important to us that we do it by creating events that are fun that the whole village can get behind.”

This year’s Hassocks Goes Gold featured a trail of sponsored gold bows in the town, daily Facebook auctions, a Golden Trail Day of Stalls, and a Golden Gala Extravaganza.