Boxing Day Game at Hoppers

This afternoon Garstang will be sending a team to Preston Grasshoppers to play against a mixed ‘Hoppers team featuring players from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and Colts teams. Similarly Garstang will be selecting a squad that features players from all the clubs Senior Men's teams and hopefully it should be a great contest.
Entrance is £5 each for all players and spectators and all the money raised goes to a great cause as detailed below.
The game kicks off at 13:30.

Charlie was diagnosed with a Grade 3 ependymoma, which is a rare brain tumour on 9th June 2018. Following Charlie’s diagnosis he has undergone several neurological operations.
Charlie had surgery on the 26th June to remove his tumour but due to complications they were only able to remove around a third of the tumour. Charlie was then discussed at the national ependymoma meeting and it was agreed
he would commence a 9 week trial of chemotherapy to see if this would make his tumour more operable. Once Charlie had completed the chemotherapy we received the devastating news that Charlie’s tumour had continued to grow and that there were no surgeons willing to operate. We were advised that radiotherapy would be offered as palliative care.
We were then given hope when we met with an incredible surgeon called Conor Mallucci at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool who was willing to give Charlie a second chance. Charlie underwent a further 2 major brain surgeries after which we were told all the tumour had been removed and as a result Charlie would be offered proton beam therapy funded by the NHS in Germany. Charlie went from being in the worst possible place to the best possible place for his diagnosis.
Charlie is now in Germany undergoing a 6 week course of proton beam therapy to kill any remaining cells and prevent regrowth. Proton beam therapy is proven to be the best treatment to cure an ependymoma (following a full resection) and has less damaging effects on a developing brain than traditional radiotherapy.
We have been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received and fundraising efforts. This is enabling us to be in Germany as a family and will help us to give Charlie all the additional support he needs to enable him to reach his full potential once he has completed all his treatment.
Nici and John
Charlie’s Mum & Dad
Also, speaking a couple of days ago John said “The support my family have been shown is humbling. A lot of the support that that has been shown has come through friends that I have made through Garstang Rugby Club. This underlines the values of the game where people stick together through thick and thin and we are eternally grateful for this support

iMRI Scanner appeal
Transforming brain surgery at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
Help us make a difference this Christmas – donate to the iMRI Scanner Appeal.
The iMRI Scanner Appeal aims to raise £4m to purchase state-of-the-art intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (iMRI) equipment that will revolutionise surgical care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Every year, thousands of children and young people from across the region come to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital for specialist neurological treatment.
Sadly, many will require complex brain surgery for a range of debilitating and even life threatening conditions including brain tumours, traumatic brain injuries, problems with the central nervous system and epilepsy.
Our specialist team of children’s neurosurgeons at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, rely on MRI scans taken before surgery to guide them to the area of the brain requiring treatment. Sometimes a child needs to be scanned during surgery, which means the risky process of moving a child (still anaesthetised on the operating table) out of theatre and through the hospital corridors to be scanned in another part of the building. Yet it isn’t until another MRI scan is taken after surgery – perhaps days later – that our surgeons can see if the surgery was successful, or if any damaged tissue or tumour was left behind and further invasive surgery is needed.
It is an acutely distressing process for our young patients and their families. For those requiring a second scan after surgery, the wait can be agonising. But there is an answer that will revolutionise brain surgery here at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and help us to save even more children’s lives. An intra-operative MRI (iMRI) and biplane angiography suite is an operating theatre with its own, built in, state-of-the-art MRI scanner and biplane angiography machine. It will mean that our surgeons can do all of the scanning while the child is still on the operating table, in a safe, sterile environment.
Children would need fewer general anaesthetics and potentially fewer surgeries – they could go straight from the scanner into surgery as many times as needed. Our surgeons would have all the information they need to reach the affected area of the brain, or remove the whole tumour, the first time. And their loved ones could rest assured that their child has left theatre only after everything that could possibly be done, has been done.

All money raised will go to the scanner appeal.

Updated 07:30 - 30 Aug 2019 by Simon Whittingham