Chesterfield theatre stages charity production in memory of young playwright
Chesterfield’s Pomegranate Theatre is staging a special production for charity on Saturday 19 March in memory of local playwright Richard Woolley, who died from leukaemia in 2009, aged 26.
All proceeds from the performance of Tabasco, one of several award-winning plays written by Richard, will be split between Anthony Nolan and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, two charities that save the lives of people with blood cancer.
Richard, a news journalist for Johnston Press, was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2008 and, despite receiving treatment, he sadly passed away in October 2009. Richard’s father, Michael Woolley, who is supporting the theatre’s fundraising efforts, says: “He was an amazing guy. After going into remission he decided to run the London Marathon in 2009 to help others like him, but the cancer returned and he was unable to run. I’m immensely proud of him. I miss him like hell; he was more than a son to me, he was my best friend.”
Tabasco, a comedy focusing on a chance encounter between two strangers and a man intent on suicide, which won Richard the Pomegranate Theatre’s annual New Playwright Competition, will be performed at 3:00pm on Saturday 19 March. Tickets are £10 and can be purchased by calling the Pomegranate Theatre Box Office on (01246) 345 222.
Michael has also published Richard’s journal which he wrote during his fight with the disease. Called Leukaemia: A Marathon For Love, the book costs £10.99 and all proceeds will be split between Anthony Nolan and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.
For more information, please contact Ellen Marshall on 020 7424 6606 / 07824 362106 or email ellen.marshall@anthonynolan.org.
Notes to editors
Anthony Nolan is a pioneering charity that saves the lives of people with blood cancer. Every day, we use our register to match remarkable donors willing to donate their blood stem cells, or bone marrow, to people they have never met who desperately need lifesaving transplants.
We provide two potentially lifesaving transplants every day, but for every patient we can help, there is another who sadly we can’t because no match can be found.
To join the register, you must be aged between 18 and 40, weigh more than 8 stone (51kg) and be in general good health. For more information on the donating process, or to apply to join the register, visit www.anthonynolan.org or call 0303 303 0303.
On average, 65 people a day in the UK are diagnosed with a blood cancer – that’s one person every 23 minutes.
There are nearly 1,600 people in the UK in need of a bone marrow transplant. This is usually their last chance of survival.
70% of patients will not find a matching donor from within their families.80% of donations take place via PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell collection). This is an outpatient appointment and is similar to donating blood.
Most donors talk about how wonderful it is to have saved someone’s life.
All new donors are welcome but young males and people from ethnic minority and mixed race backgrounds are underrepresented on the register.
Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is the only UK charity solely dedicated to research into blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. These cancers are diagnosed in around 28,500 children, teenagers and adults in the UK every year.
As we receive no government funding and rely entirely on voluntary support, we need to raise £120 million in the next five years to continue this lifesaving research. Further information, including patient information booklets, is available from www.beatbloodcancers.org or on 020 7405 0101.