My Story
Thanks for taking the time to visit my fundraising page. The village of Oborne is to stage a twenty-four hour Table Tennis Marathon in aid of Cancer Research UK. The fund-raising event will take place at the hotel, The Grange at Oborne, from 11am on Saturday the 5th of April, ending at 11am the following day. Play will be led by Karenza and Ken Mathews, owners of the hotel. Karenza was twice Women’s Table Tennis Champion of England and represented England more than two hundred times. She played in most European countries frequently visiting Soviet Russia in the days of the Cold War. She played in India, Japan and Australia and was a member of the team that toured China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. That tour became famous as it was labelled by the international press as Ping Pong Diplomacy! Ken was the Manager of the England Team. Karenza said, ‘I have been fortunate enough to have recovered from endometrial cancer. But we have family and friends who have suffered from other forms of the disease. Particularly tragic was a form of cancer that struck down Thomas, the son of our friends; he died at the age of nine years. So many of us know of similar stories. We want to do everything we can to help in the fight against this disease. Our village has come together to try to raise as much money as possible to help Cancer Research UK.’ Ken and Karenza, together with many volunteers, intend to keep play going for the full twenty-four hours. Players from local clubs and leagues are being invited to take part. In fact anyone who simply plays at home will be welcome to take part! They have stressed that ability is not important - and younger players will be particularly welcome. Whenever the ball goes out of play the cry will be, in the words of the pantomime: ‘We’ll have to start again then won’t we! Woo!’ But Ken said that ‘It’s just possible that we might get fed up with that after twenty-four hours!’ Play will be on one table. We have a rota for the twenty-four hours. If anyone in our area would like to take part we would love to enter your name on the rota. But to avoid chaos we will need to fit players into specified time slots in advance, depending on their availability. The dark hours from 10pm Saturday until 9 am Sunday will be more difficult to fill! We hope to raise a good amount for Cancer Research UK and ask that all those taking part, or those who would simply like to contribute, to try to get as much support as possible either by sponsorship for the players or by donations.
