Gloucestershire County Cricket Club’s Brandon Gilmour and Ian Cockbain took time away from the Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival to visit the Gloucestershire Oncology Centre, to find out first-hand how the funds raised through their ‘Hit Cancer for Six!’ charity partnership will benefit local cancer patients.

As charity partners for the 2016 Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival, Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity are appealing for the local community and Festival goers to make a text donation of £3 by texting: HITC46 £3 to 70070, with every donation matched by festival sponsors Brewin Dolphin to become £6.

Donations to the appeal will make an enormous difference to local cancer patients through the Charity’s Focus Appeal, which provides specialist equipment and extra care over and above that provided by the NHS.

Recent donations have enabled the charity to provide portable devices for continuous pain relief, rise and recline chairs which give comfort to patients receiving chemotherapy and a hands-free imaging device called a Veinsite, which helps staff to locate a patient’s veins for treatment.

Brandon and Ian met members of the Oncology Centre’s Radiotherapy team, and heard how a bladder scanner recently funded by the Focus Appeal is making an enormous difference to patients.

Accurately locating the exact part of the body to target with radiotherapy to within millimetres is an essential part of ensuring treatment is as effective as possible, as well as reducing any side effects which patients might experience. The bladder scanner allows patients to benefit from an improved technique; enabling staff to quickly check patients prior to treatment, improving patient comfort and giving reliable information which can be used immediately.

Brandon and Ian also called in at the Cancer information Centre, funded by Focus, and handed over complimentary tickets for the Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival’s upcoming fixtures for cancer patients in the centre.

Head of Fundraising at Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity, Richard Smith: “We’re delighted to be Hitting Cancer for Six with GCCC and The Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival! They have been incredibly supportive of our Focus Appeal to provide extra care for local cancer patients receiving treatment just across the road from the Festival site.

It was fantastic that Brandon and Ian wanted to visit to see first-hand how donations to Focus make a difference, and I think that really shows the commitment which GCCC are making to the local community through this partnership. We’re very grateful indeed for their support”

The finale to this year’s festival is on Sunday, the 24th of July, when Gloucestershire take on Sussex in a Royal London One-Day Cup match. Tickets are available at gloscricket.co.uk, the match starts at 11am.