60 hours, 36 players and 1 world record to beat breast cancer
Press Release For immediate release: 25 October 2010 Press contact: Louise Garrahan, Media Relations Officer, Breast Cancer Campaign, DD 0207 749 3724, Email: lgarrahan@breastcancercampaign.org 60 hours, 36 players and 1 world record to beat breast cancer A team of footballers from Loughborough are taking a well deserved rest today after setting a new Guinness World Record for the world’s longest football match while raising money for Breast Cancer Campaign. Captain Ricardo Braganza and 35 fellow players at Loughborough University played for a staggering 60 hours from 9am on Friday 22 October until the final whistle blew at 9pm on Sunday 24 October. The previous official record, set by the Challengers and the Crunchers in Qatar, is 42 hours. The Pink Panthers won the match beating the Black Eagles 756 – 746 and an official adjudicator from Guinness World Records was on hand to announce the new record. Ricardo, 21, from Ilford, Essex, organised the football-athon to raise funds for Breast Cancer Campaign after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. So far, the thrilled maths student has raised more than £18,000 to help fund world-class breast cancer research. He said afterwards: “My team mates and I can’t believe we’re world record breakers, it’s such an amazing achievement for us. The game was extremely tough but we knew the money raised from this challenge was going towards a worthwhile cause, so we just had to keep going. It was really rainy and windy on the Friday night but we had fantastic support from friends and family so that helped us to carry on. It’s incredible to think we played for 60 hours and set a new world record.” Each footballer played for two hours at a time with a one-hour break in-between. Under Guinness World Record rules, they were not allowed to leave the pitch at any point during the attempt and spent time sleeping in two-man tents on the sidelines. Karen Lambert, Events Executive at Breast Cancer Campaign, said: “I’m so proud of Ricardo and his team for smashing the previous world record and for raising so much money to help us continue our mission to beat breast cancer. They all trained for months to be physically ready for this and it’s good to see their hard work and determination has paid off.” Players on the two teams were Black Eagles: Ricardo Braganza, Andrew Wishart, Sam Whelan, Alex Corck-Adelman, Alexei Christofi, Michael Thomas, Dan Greenway, Tom Burgess, Matt Whitehead, Luke Wormall, Stefano Mini, Sam Graham, Larry Adeyemi, Mark Williams, Mark Glattback, Oliver Green, Conall McAteer and Jon Claxton. Pink Panthers: Jon Pople, Jon Mackie, Blair McMurray, Matt Martindale, Joe Spraggins, Joel Barlow, Jey Shanth, Mark Langford, Sam Czeres, Tyrone White, Raz Dalby, Adam Moore, Lewis Johnson, Raji Guna, Tom Walker, Eliot Tang, Hector Johnston and Phil Wormall. If you would like to contribute to Ricardo’s fundraising, please visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/ricardobraganza and donate what you can. For more information about Breast Cancer Campaign, please visit www.breastcancercamapign.org Ends Picture captions: Ricardo Braganza (front left) and his team mates The Black Eagles. The Pink Panthers Notes to editors • Breast Cancer Campaign aims to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-class research to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure • Currently it supports 104 research projects, worth over £16.1 million, in 38 centres of excellence across the UK and Ireland • Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and accounts for nearly one in three of all cancers in women • In the UK, nearly 46,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year - that’s 125 a day • Visit www.breastcancercampaign.org • Read Chief Executive Pamela Goldberg’s blog http://pamelagoldbergblog.blogspot.com/
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