BBQ On The Green – About and History
Barbeque on the Green is an annual cancer charity fundraiser, started in 2015 and now in its fourth year. The event was inspired and came about after Steve and Louise’s close friend, Mandy Ross-Read, was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer. The first two years we raised money for Breast and Triple Negative Breast Cancer Research and treatment. In 2017 the fundraising has been extended now to include Prostate Cancer research and treatment charities as well after Kevin Boon’s (BBQ on the Green’s – Barman for all the events so far) was diagnosed with this strain of Cancer
Steve Scrivener said “ It all started just because we felt we needed to do something! Its times like these when friends and family have life threatening illness that it hits home and you feel that it could be happening to any of us and you just feel you want to try and find a way to make it better somehow.”
“The only option seems to be to try and get money into the treatments and research, either to directly help individuals, or to the medical researchers that are coming up with new and effective treatments. Plus it wasn’t just our friend Mandy & Kevin, other Friends in our immediate community were also suffering from and had battled this illness”
“So what started as just a simple idea, based on the fact that there is a really good bunch of people/neighbours around the green where we live and because there had been successful BBQ based gatherings on the green before. So we felt we might get a few people to come out to enjoy an evening and donate some money for the food and drink provided and that we could pass any money raised on to do some good with”
“The first year 2015, was a very cobbled together affair with just simple food on several bbq’s and a bunch of borrowed gazebo to set up and serve food and drink from and some borrowed staging for the band to perform from. The turn-out was great and much better than we expected. We really had only promoted it through Facebook, word of mouth around the village and few leaflets dropped in the adjacent streets around the Railway Drive green. We think we had about 200 people come along and support the event and we raised approximately £2,000. Money was then given to Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research and Brown Dog Cancer Charity, who “raise money to purchase vital equipment or infrastructure to improve the detection or treatment of cancer (and improve patient care) to subsequently save or extend life.“
“The event went so well, everyone said you must do it again and we thought why not, we have a great community here and it worked well, so why not! Plus having done it once we thought we might be able to do it a bit better next time”
In 2016 with support from local businesses and some talented local Musicians and the brilliant local community the second event was put on and we doubled the numbers and approximately £4,000 was raised. Funds were sent to Guy’s Hospital London to support the funding, research and treatments for Triple Negative breast cancer.”
2017 saw BBQ on the Green grow bigger still. This time with two stages hosting over 10 bands performing throughout the day, a human table football arena, arts and crafts stools, artisan coffee, bar, disco, raffle and even local artists showcasing their finest work. BBQ on the Green 2017 raised over £5,000 for both Breast Cancer Research and Advanced Metastatic Prostate Cancer.
This year in 2018 there will again be live music from an amazing and brilliantly talented selection of bands, and solo artists, DJ after live music party, a range of artisan stalls, a bar, a raffle and of course a delicious barbeque food so please join us on Saturday 12 May 2018 for what should be an epic, fun and entertaining afternoon and evening and help us raise money for these vital and life-saving charities.
We are also delighted to say that all our friends, Mandy and the other ladies we know, have had superb treatment from the NHS and various trials and new drugs and all are doing well.
Mandy and Kevin are themselves still riding the rollercoaster of treatment which is both hard going and scary, both need some real breakthroughs to help them more.
Also as we know the costs of new treatments is huge so it’s vital that the money keeps coming in.
We are finally both proud to say that this event has so far been kindly and so very generously supported by many local people, musicians and business with generous donations of money and equipment, time and talent (more details on the webpage, www.bbqonthegreen.com and Facebook, www.facebook.com/bbqonthegreensturmarshall/).
This year the actual event is on Saturday 12th May and we would love to see you on the day but if you can’t then there is a justgiving page set up to help for those who want to give a bit more or who can’t be there but want still want to give.
Many many thanks to all our supporters and givers and helpers and collaborators!
