£3,000 raised in memory of Guy

6:20pm Friday 5th September 2008

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FRIENDS of a brave bone cancer sufferer who battled his illness for six years before it claimed his life have raised almost £3,000 for a charity in his memory.

After being diagnosed with the condition, courageous Guy Francis, of Wheldrake, launched a fund to help pioneering research into how it can be treated.

He died in 2002, aged just 23, but his name has been kept alive by those who knew him as they have continued the work of the Guy Francis Bone Cancer Research Fund.

And now that work has been boosted by thousands of pounds raised by a group of his friends who held the first ever GFete – a day of events including a football tournament, a series of games and live music – at Crockey Hill, near York, which saw more than 100 people gather to remember a much-loved member of their community.

Guy suffered from a form of bone cancer known as osteogenic sarcoma in his leg, discovered after he underwent an X-ray for a sporting injury, but instead of letting it devastate him, he was inspired to create the fund with the aim of raising £500,000 to pay for vital research into the illness.

It is now part of an alliance of various small charities which have been amalgamated to form the Bone Cancer Research Trust, and the £2,932 collected at last weekend’s GFete, held at a Crockey Hill farm run by four of his friends, will now be used to move its work forward.

“This is hopefully the first of many GFetes to come,” said committee member Louise Duffy, a close friend of Guy’s.

“He was such a brilliant person – he would help anybody and was somebody you could always talk to – and the event was something he would really have enjoyed. We’re proud to have organised it in his memory and we hope he’d have been proud of it as well.

“The generosity people showed was amazing and we definitely raised more money than we ever expected.

“It will go to a very good cause – bone cancer might be rare, but it can also be fatal and more research into what it needs to be carried out.

“We have to thank everybody who helped to organise the GFete and who donated prizes – we know it’s something Guy would have loved.”

Since the fund was set up, Guy’s friends have raised money by organising balls and sponsored events as well as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

For more information about its work, log on to www.bonecancerresearch.org.uk.