24-hour tennis marathon raises over £4,000 for Guide Dogs charity
A 24-hour tennis marathon held in Sutton Coldfield has raised £4,482 for sight loss charity Guide Dogs, with fundraising still ongoing.
The annual event, run by Four Oaks Tennis and Padel Club, took place from Friday, 4 July to Saturday, 5 July, with club members taking turns, ensuring that tennis was played continuously for 24-hours.
Jaz Bal, Events and Social Secretary for Four Oaks Tennis and Padel Club, said: “Our tennis club, founded in 1906 is a community of locally based members from Sutton Coldfield and surrounding areas. Our club moto ‘The Friendly Club’ resonates with the amazing community vibe the club offers.
“As an avid tennis player and fan, I wanted to combine this amazing sport with raising money for good causes - which was when I came up with the concept of members of our club playing tennis for 24 hours and raising money for charity.
“During the past three years, the club has raised over £24,000 for charities including Acorns Children's Hospice, Bowel Cancer UK and The Ruth Strauss Foundation.
“We’re delighted to have raised £4482 so far for Guide Dogs at this year’s event and hope to name our own guide dog puppy with the money raised.
“One of our members, Ellen Burrows was the inspiration behind supporting Guide Dogs as our chosen charity this year.
“Ellen is currently raising a guide dog puppy – we are all very proud of the work she does for this fantastic charity.”
Miles Northwood, Community Fundraising Manager, said: “As a charity, we rely almost entirely on donations to keep our life-changing services for people with sight loss running, so fundraising events like these are extremely important.
“We’d like to say a big thank you to the members of Four Oaks Tennis and Padel Club for taking part in this fantastic challenge and raising vital funds for us here at Guide Dogs.”
It costs £102,000 to raise, train, and support a guide dog from birth to retirement.
Guide Dogs has trained over 37,500 guide dogs. That’s more than one new guide dog every day since the charity’s first guide dog partnerships were created in 1931.
To find out more about fundraising for Guide Dogs, visit: guidedogs.org.uk/fundraise or call 0800 781 1444.
