Firemen take charity message to shoppers

Photo: Picture: VINCENT BROWN

ETHAN Hornby, with his dad, Anthony, and other members of Blue Watch at Oldham Fire Station. They are (from the left), Mike Simms, Ian Hall, Sean Zastawny, Russell Horton, Richard Rigby, and Chris Bowker.

FIRE-FIGHTERS planning a 210-mile charity bike ride will be at Spindles Town Square shopping centre on Saturday to raise awareness of a rare form of cancer.

The 14 fire-fighters from Oldham and Chadderton fire stations will be in the saddle for two days next month on a coast-to-coast ride from Connah’s Quay in Wales to South Shields in England to raise money for the Child Eye Cancer Trust charity, Chect.

They will take their bikes to Spindles to talk to shoppers about the condition, and hopefully attract sponsorship.

Among those taking part is Chadderton fire-fighter Anthony Hornby, whose five-year-old son Ethan inspired the team into action.

The youngster lost an eye through neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve tissue, which resulted in him losing his left eye. But, as previously reported in the Chronicle, Ethan is now back at St Thomas’s School, Lees, playing football and swimming after an operation to save his life.

To make donations go to www.virginmoneygiving.com, look for the friends’ section and insert the name Ethan Hornby.