This year’s 2024 Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival blew fundraising expectations out of the water – with a staggering £35k raised for the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH).
A total of 41 teams and over 600 competitors gathered along the riverbank at Fen Ditton for Saturday’s 18th Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival – paddling 30ft Dragon Boats up the river in glorious sunshine.
As well as the races, bankside entertainment brought the crowds in – with lion dances from the Cambridge Chinese Community and family-friendly entertainment provided by sponsors, Illumina (pictured below), with fun activities such as strawberry DNA extraction, dress like a scientist with a walk-through Cambridge DNA history, face painting and flag making.
We were there too – in a tent full of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust staff and volunteers, with donations to our raffle and hook a duck all helping to boost our £14 million public appeal for the new specialist cancer hospital.
Saturday’s electric event raised £35,000 and all funds will be used in support of the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH). The hospital, which will be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus by 2029, will bring together clinical and research expertise in a new, world-class hospital, designed in partnership with staff and patients. It will detect cancer earlier, treat it more precisely, and save more lives.
A special shout out to all the teams who competed to raise money for the new hospital – and to Cambridge 105 for supporting us on the day with live interviews and the Cambridge Independent who were taking photos on the day.
Teams travelled from outside the county to take part in Saturday’s Festival – with winners of the best dressed competition, Mosses Arc, travelling down from outside Chester to celebrate their friend Paul’s 50th birthday. Following a Noah’s Arc theme their outfits came two by two – with everything from flamingos to leopards, giant furry rats and chickens. We’re not sure how they managed to row in them – but they looked great!
Thank you also to the teams with multiple entries including TWI Ltd; Ring; AstraZeneca; Huawei Technologies; and the Railway Arms.
ACT’s Natasha Robertson, Corporate Partnerships Manager, hailed the festival a huge success and said: “It was such a fantastic day with an amazing atmosphere. It was lovely to meet all the teams and having the CCRH project team competing, as well as on their stand, meant that everyone who came – whether they were competing or coming to join in the fun – could see the direct impact they were having by helping to raise money for the new cancer hospital.
“We are absolutely delighted to have raised £35,000. It’s been our best festival yet!”
Lucy Morton, Executive Director from organisers NewWave Events, said: “The 2024 Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival was a complete success and the whole team at NewWave Events had a fantastic day with all the crews. The fundraising efforts resulted in a record-breaking amount being raised for ACT from this event and we’re eager to build on this further for 2025! Watch this space for more information about next year, with plans already starting we have lots of ideas and hopefully, we will be bringing the dragons back to the River Cam with a sell-out event for the 20th year!’
Mark Robinson, VP and General Manager, UK and Ireland, and Northern Europe, Illumina said: “lllumina had an incredible day as sponsors of the 2024 Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival to raise vital funds for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust to build a specialist cancer hospital in Cambridge. Seeing families, friends, and local businesses come together to support their teams provided an amazing atmosphere for the day and made it extra special.”
Elaine Chapman, Lead Advisory Nurse for CCRH, joined the CCRH project team in their boat and said: “We were absolutely delighted to take to the waters to raise money for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. It was my third time in a race crew and probably the best event yet!”
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came out to support such an amazing cause which has led to an incredible £35K raised for our future facility, that is bringing world-leading research and clinical excellence together, to change the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond.”
“We’re involving patients and staff at every stage of our project, so it was incredibly fun and rewarding to have our patients with us racing on the River Cam for CCRH.”
ACT would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all the teams taking part on the day. We hope to see you return next year for an even bigger, better festival with funds from next year’s festival again going towards our £14 million public appeal to help build the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
Click here if you would like to donate to Cancer services at Addenbrooke’s and the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
Email our friendly fundraising team and find out what you can do to support our hospitals.
