A man who has had both his legs amputated has completed a 13-hour crawl to the summit of Snowdon.

Paul Ellis said he was in good spirits after completing the nine-mile (14.5 km) Llanberis route. He has so far raised more than £3,000 to send amputee children on holiday.

A team of 18 amateur cyclists, led by ex-England footballer and blood cancer survivor Geoff Thomas, have today completed the full 2021 Tour de France route, one week ahead of the professionals. They have cycled over 3400km and battle extreme heat, battering winds, driving rain, fog, crashes, gruelling climbs, illness and fatigue to raise funds for national blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia. On Sunday 11th July the rode into Paris having surpassed their £1,000,000 target for the blood cancer charity.

Cure Leukaemia, which was announced as the first ever official Charity Partner of the Tour de France in the UK for the next three years, recorded a £1,700,000 fundraising shortfall in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and The Tour 21 team aims to help the charity address this shortfall in funding by completing all 3,400km of the world’s most famous and prestigious professional cycling event.

All funds raised by The Tour 21 team will be invested in the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) which has been solely funded by Cure Leukaemia since January 2020. TAP is a network of specialist research nurses at 12 blood cancer centres located in the UK’s biggest cities and a facilitatory hub based at the Centre for Clinical Haematology in Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This network enables accelerated setup and delivery of potentially life-saving blood cancer clinical trials to run giving patients from a UK catchment area of over 20 million people access to treatments not currently available through standard care.

Cure Leukaemia Patron Geoff Thomas was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours just days before setting off for France. The former midfielder who captained Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup Final, made over 450 club appearances for Palace, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, Crewe, Rochdale, Barnsley and Notts County and he was capped 9 times for England.

He retired in 2002 and was then diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in the summer of 2003 and given just 3 months to live. Thanks to treatment from Cure Leukaemia co-founder professor Charlie Craddock CBE and a transplant from his sister Kay, Geoff went into remission in early 2005 and then rode his first Tour de France challenge later that year.

Geoff has now completed the Tour de France on five occasions since beating blood cancer and is thrilled to have reached the £1,000,000 target: “Six weeks ago, it didn’t look like this event could take place and yet here we are in Paris having not only completed one of the toughest ever Tour de France routes but, more importantly, we have achieved our goal of raising £1,000,000 for the charity that helped save my life 18 years ago. I am immensely proud of the whole team including those who weren’t able to join us in France, the crew led by Andy Cook and everyone involved with the charity back in the UK. Without all of these people this event would not have happened.

“Raising £1,000,000 is hard and I would like to thank Farr Vintners and all our sponsors and everyone that has donated to get us to our target. We will enjoy this moment but there is still so much to do to ensure blood cancer is eradicated and I look forward to assembling our Tour 21 team for 2022 in the coming weeks. You never know, perhaps I do have one more Tour in me…. ”

Cure Leukaemia Chief Executive James McLaughlin said: “We suffered a £1,700,000 fundraising shortfall in 2020 and that is why it was so important that Geoff and The Tour 21 team could complete the event some of them have been training for since 2019. Ensuring this event could go ahead has been a herculean effort from so many people and I would like to thank everyone that has played a part in making The Tour 21 a success.

“To raise £1,000,000 is incredible and I want to thank all of the riders, their families, friends and colleagues because taking this event on requires enormous sacrifices long before the start. And big thank you as well to Andy Cook Cycling an all of the support crew who make the event run so smoothly, our fantastic photography and video teams and to Farr Vintners and all our sponsors.  Every penny they have raised and continue to raise will go towards ensuring our network of specialist research nurses across the UK can continue giving blood cancer patients hope by giving them access to clinical trials.

“Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Geoff for his tireless efforts on and off the bike to ensure this event was a success. His qualities as a captain in football have transferred seamlessly into fundraising and he continues to inspire and drive this charity forwards. There is much work still to be done but, for now, I hope Geoff and the team enjoyed a very well-deserved celebration in Paris.” Geoff and the team have been receiving messages of good luck throughout the event and received a message of congratulations from comedian, actor and Crystal Palace fan Eddie Izzard.

And they received a congratulations message from 7-Grand Tour winner Chris Froome OBE: https://youtu.be/AUMrmBniX_8

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Wolverhampton’s own Commonwealth Games gold medallist Hugh Porter MBE has today been announced as City Cycling Ambassador – exactly 12 months before we host the event’s 2022 cycling time trial. Hugh, one of Britain's greatest former professional cyclists, has been given the accolade by City of Wolverhampton Council to recognise his tremendous achievements in the sport.                                                                                                                                                                    

In his ambassador role, Hugh, who won Commonwealth Games gold in 1966 and four world titles in the individual pursuit, will act as a figurehead for cycling in the city. He will help promote the Games as well as support other initiatives across Wolverhampton that show the council’s commitment to providing opportunities for residents to take up or continue cycling.

Following an extremely difficult time for everybody, especially charities, one erstwhile charity fundraiser took on his most difficult challenge to date when he played 4 rounds of golf a day for 5 straight days (June 15-19) whilst playing around 2000 golf shots and walking 130 miles, which took over 16 hours-a-day.

The painful 5-day stint saw Ramesh Parmar go through with a great sense of achievement, that he said “was well worth the pain.

“I have always wanted to carry on helping people in need after my dad passed away”, he said, “as he was a very caring and charitable man who always helped people, one way or another. He always found time to help.

“I raised money for some wonderful charities like Help Harry Help Others because they are a remarkable and caring charity.”

He played 16 rounds of golf in 2016 to raise £17,800 - some of which saw 57 HHHO cancer centre users taken on a trip to London’s West End to see the smash-hit show Mamma Mia, as well as taking a further 20 cancer centre users for a night out for the Birmingham Hippodrome’s Mama Mia production.

Ramesh was joined by 17 members and friends of the Enville Golf Club, in 2018, to play 18 holes of golf – after walking for 18 miles – raising £21,340 for Help Harry Help Others.

“Playing the rounds of golf raised £17,800, and it was a privileged to have taken 57 HHHO cancer centre users on a trip to London to see the West end Show Mamma Mia. We also had a night out to the Hippodrome to see the same show for another 20 cancer centre users.”

Following a difficult 2020, an excited Ramesh is more than making-up by continuing to help charities who have struggled through.

“This time around I have a team to help me get through this challenge,” he said, “and I would like to thank them all for their support.” 79% of the £20,000 target was raised, immediately after the challenge, by 186 supporters, raising a staggering £15,940.

A careers training charity for women in Birmingham has been chosen to receive £1,000 from a UK leading housebuilder.

Opportunities for Liberating and Developing your Potential (OLDP) successfully applied for the funding through the Persimmon Homes Community Champions scheme. The entirely female run OLDP aims to empower and upskill women and girls for careers in the built environment, through training workshops and work experience.

Barbra Quarless, chair of OLDP, said: “We are extremely grateful for the donation from Persimmon Homes, and the money will be put to great use.

“We are a registered organisation in the Age UK directory, and many of the over 70’s referred to us cannot afford small repairs/maintenance such as installing a handrail which costs approximately £120. We would like a pot of money to be able to do these odd jobs for our older clients, providing a much-needed resource for the elderly in our community.”

The ‘Deborah’ All Women painting, decorating and homes maintenance team aims to deliver good quality value for money work.

Sales director for Persimmon Homes Central, Sarah Preston, said: “Our Community Champions scheme is all about supporting groups who make a real difference to their local community.

“We make two donations of up to £1,000 every month across the areas by where we are building. For groups working specifically with the under-18’s we have recently launched our Building Futures initiative, which will share more than £1million amongst charities and good causes across England, Scotland and Wales.”

The team at the iconic Birmingham Back to Backs has won the prestigious Dementia Hero Award in the category ‘Dementia Friendly Business’.

The winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday 20 May, which were hosted by Alzheimer’s Society supporter TV presenter, writer and journalist, Richard Madeley. The Dementia Hero Awards took place during Dementia Action Week, which runs from the 17-23 May.

The Birmingham Back to Backs’ Reminiscence team was one of three finalists in their category, ‘Dementia Friendly Business – Small and Medium Category’. This award category recognised organisations that have gone over and above to become dementia-friendly, for their customers and employees. The category was split by large organisation (over 250 staff) and small/medium organisation (up to 249 staff). The award winner was announced by TV presenter and journalist, Angela Rippon CBE.

The awards, which are sponsored by Tunstall Healthcare, took place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic and showcased the stories of people doing outstanding things during the pandemic – Alzheimer’s Society’s dementia heroes.

The dedicated Reminiscence team at the Birmingham Back to Backs, located in the city centre on Hurst Street, have been working with the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust to make a meaningful difference for people with dementia and their families.

Claire Pitt, a Reminiscence team volunteer at the Birmingham Back to Backs, said: “We were so pleased to be nominated and so surprised to have been shortlisted as a finalist, but to have actually won the award is fantastic. Everyone in the team has worked so hard and we all enjoy doing what we do for people with dementia.

“Before lockdown we ran meet up sessions for people with dementia and their carers to come along and visit. We would sit in the Back to Back living rooms and we set the tables up and had tea. Each session had a theme, such as childhood, and another time we spoke about food and cookery. The group would reminisce about their childhood or about cooking when they were younger, and we had historical objects from that time-period on display.

“The best thing about the sessions is the way you see people with dementia light up in front of you – they sit up and they remember something. When they talk about themselves and their memories, they are the expert and it’s so wonderful to see. Carers have told us that after the sessions, the people with dementia would leave and talk about the session at home or even a week later.

“Since the pandemic hit, we have been running the sessions on Zoom every other week and showing reminiscence images, such as cooking utensils, old toys, and we have a show and tell slot where people with dementia show an object on camera and talk about what it means to them.

“It’s such a great thing to do and it’s wonderful to see how it helps people. There are so many people affected by dementia, and their carers too, who need support, and this number is growing as our population ages, so it’s so important to help and involve them. Society as a whole needs to become more dementia friendly.”

Alzheimer’s Society Area Manager for Midlands Central, Janice Le Tellier, said: “Throughout the pandemic so many individuals, groups and organisations have gone above and beyond to support people affected by dementia. This year’s Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Hero Awards provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate the achievements of these unsung heroes.

“It’s been so inspiring to hear the stories of those dedicated to caring for people with dementia, finding innovative solutions in research, and the campaigners and media fighting for the rights of people living with dementia. They are all making a difference.

“We are delighted that the Reminiscence team at the Birmingham Back to Backs has won the Dementia Hero Awards for Dementia Friendly Business.

“The past year has been tough for all of us. But imagine how much worse it would have been if you couldn’t understand why it was happening: why you no longer saw your loved ones; why your carers stopped visiting or why they wore masks. Tragically, this was the reality for tens of thousands of people living with dementia in the UK.

“Since the pandemic began, Alzheimer’s Society support services have been used 3.7 million times, showing that people affected by dementia need us now more than ever.”