Press release
16 September 2025
Teams taking part in this year’s 2025 Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival have done it again – beating last year’s fundraising total to raise an impressive £40,000 for the new Cambridge Cancer Hospital (CCRH).
Thanking everyone who took part – from teams of rowers to volunteers who helped on the day, to friends and families and members of the public who came along to watch – Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust’s Head of Community Fundraising, Donna Lee-Willis described Saturday’s event as “brilliant.”
“It was such a great atmosphere, and I thought all the races were really close this year. When you are watching, you really can’t call some of them, especially in the final – which was great.”
A total of 43 teams and around 600 competitors – including a last-minute entry from ACT after one team dropped out and donated their boat to the charity – raced 30ft Dragon Boats up a 200-metre stretch of river at Fen Ditton, with a novice team claiming first place this year.
Many of the teams dressed up for the annual event, organised by NewWave Events for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) and sponsored for the second year running by Illumina to raise money for the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH).
The new specialist hospital for the East of England is bringing world-leading research and clinical excellence together, to change the story of cancer, and improve the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond.
Built over seven floors, the new hospital will house three world-leading University of Cambridge research institutes focussing on early detection, integrated cancer medicine and precision breast cancer medicine to accelerate and bring new innovations to the bedside faster, detect cancer earlier and treat it more precisely.
Praising teams for their fundraising, Donna said: “Everyone that took part said there was a connection to the cancer hospital in some way or another and I definitely think this helped everyone get behind the fundraising, knowing what they were fundraising for.”
As well as the races, bankside entertainment included lion dances and Tai Chai displays from the Cambridge Chinese community, with family-friendly entertainment provided by Illumina, including strawberry DNA extraction and dragon chain making. There was also a caricature artist as well as face painting – with live coverage and interviews on the day from Cambridge Radio presenters Gavin Richards and Fen Orr Ewing, with print coverage from the Cambridge Independent.
ACT staff were also there on the day, running a Guess the Dog’s name competition (Biscuit!), hook a duck and a prize raffle.
A highlight of the day included a flypast from a 1945 Lancaster Bomber – the UK’s only surviving flying Bomber, nicknamed ‘Thumper’ – which flew over the river before circling back round a couple of times to dip its wings to the waiting crowds.
Donna said other memorable moments from the festival included “the screaming coming from the Illumina tent from the team dressed as the mad professors as they pulled off their eyebrows and moustaches” as well as the Rosie Maternity Team, dressed as characters from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Senior midwife Annie West had stayed up until 2.30am the day of the festival hand sewing all the costumes, with midwife and boat drummer, Bethany Franqueira, deciding to shout ‘Push!’ to her team, rather than ‘one, two!’
Mark Robinson, VP and GM, UK and Ireland, said: “Illumina is proud to once again have joined forces with ACT to support the 2025 Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival. This year’s event was a fantastic success, bringing our teams together in support of a vital cause. It’s always inspiring to see the energy and generosity of our community as we raise funds for the new Cancer Research Hospital at Addenbrooke’s. We’re honoured to play a part in improving outcomes for children with cancer and giving back to the communities where we live and work.”
Lucy Morton, Executive Director at NewWave Events, said: “There was a great turnout this year with lots of new teams which is always nice to see, with absolutely fantastic fundraising efforts from everyone. We were really happy to see the sun shining and the fly past was the icing on the cake for us as it hasn’t been done for a few years.”
“Thank you to all of our event and media partners – Illumina, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, Cambridge Radio and Cambridge Independent.”
Nikki Murphy, Deputy Project Director for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital said: “Many thanks to everyone who came to the Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival this weekend, including all the crews, supporters and donors. This year’s event raised around £40,000 for the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which will detect cancer earlier, treat it more precisely, and save more lives. We would also like to extend our thanks to Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust for organising such a great event! We entered our own crew for the second year running and it was fabulous to have our team of staff and patients involved in such a fun event.”
The best dressed category went to the ‘Rowfessors’ – one of Illumina’s three teams, dressed as mad professors in white lab coats, wild white wigs and stick-on eyebrows and moustaches. Highly Commended in the category went to the Rosie Maternity Hospital team, dressed as characters from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Ark Colour Design, dressed as sunflowers.
Charity Trophy for top fundraiser went to Crestel Projects Limited, who as of Saturday had raised just shy of £1,700. Commended went to Ark Colour Design; Illumina; Thaxted Dragons; Telefonica Tech; Cambridge Vacuum Engineering and Cheffins (all who raised over £1,000). A special thank you goes to The Tivoli in Cambridge for donating a Mini Golf session with prosecco and pizzas for the top prize.
In Mixed Crew (minimum of five female paddlers), 3rd place went to The Savillians from Savills; Runners up went to Hawaii Five-O from Four Corners Farming, with the Winning team – aptly named – The Winner Is! from TWI Ltd (UK).
Festival champions were Dragon Boat novices – Bango – whose exciting reaction to hearing they’d won was great to watch! They came first with a time of 62.79 seconds. 4th place went to the Railway Arms with a time of 63.44; 3rd place went to Penta Row Paddlers from Pentaco Construction, with 63.27 and runners up went to Speedy Boaty from TWI Ltd (UK) with a time of 63.06.
ACT would like to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone taking part who made this such a special event – with a pledge to make it ‘even bigger and better’ next year.
Donna Lee-Willis said: “Next year is going to be even bigger and better. We are going to raise more, have more teams and also add more activities on the day for families and entertaining.”
If you would like to donate to Cancer services at Addenbrooke’s and the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, please visit: www.act4addenbrookes.org.uk/cancer
To reach ACT’s friendly fundraising team to find out what you can do to support our hospitals, visit: www.act4addenbrookes.org.uk/fundraising
To listen to Cambridge Radio’s live coverage from the day, please click below: