Rhubarb 2017

28 ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

2008 Georgina McHardy (K, 2004-2008) passed out at Sandhurst (Sovereign’s Parade Commissioning course 153) in August 2016. 2011 Ed Lea (H, 2006-2011) and Sam Macdonald-Smith (H, 2008-2013) cycled across North America from Vancouver to Washington D.C. to raise funds for the Enham Trust. This is a disability charity that works with over 7,500 individuals each year, enabling them to have increased independence and choice in the cornerstone areas of their lives. The charity is especially close to their hearts as Ed’s sister, Izzy, has cerebral palsy and is a resident of Enham’s community in Hampshire. The route is around 3000 miles long and Ed and Sam cycled completely unsupported, carrying all of their equipment, camping gear, food, water and clothing with them. They kept a blog along the way to record their journey ( http:// britsonbikesbc2dc.blogspot.co.uk/ ) and aim to raise £10,000 for the Trust. 2013 Imogen Gore (M, 2008-2013) has won the Midlands Award at the Association of Women in Property National Student Awards. 2016 Celia Hodgson (D, 2011- 2016) visited the Art Department to produce a film about visual arts at St Edward’s. Celia co-founded the Teddies on Camera film crew, and is now pursuing a career in filmmaking. To watch her film about the Art Department, amongst others, visit http:// www.stedwardsoxford.org/whats-on/ teddies-tv/ Flora King (K, 2011-2016) competed at the British Transplant Games in Liverpool in July 2016. It was her first time competing for the adult age category (18-29) as part of Team Oxford. She won four Golds in Tennis, Squash, Long Jump and Ball Throw and a Bronze in Table Tennis. She has been selected for Team GB for the 2017 Games for Tennis, Javelin and Paddle Tennis.

Field House to cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats in nine consecutive days. This would entail averaging 109 miles and climbing nearly 2,000m each day, and was completed on 28th May 2016. OSE riders included Alastair Simmie , Chris Carey , Phil Shucksmith (C, 1998-2003) and Matt Thomas-Keeping (C, 1998-2003). The trip turned out to be a lot tougher than we had expected. What started as a minor irritation in the knees or shoulders would turn into a pretty distracting pain that no amount of time on the roller could fix. A friend and I also fell ill within a day of each other with a stomach bug and fever that we both couldn’t shake. On consecutive nights, we both made the call not to ride the following day. I found this extremely gutting knowing I would not complete the course despite so many months of training in the cold for hours on my own. Despite the quite formidable aches and pains suffered by the remainder of the group, the remaining five riders completed the entire course to schedule. 'The scenery was endlessly breath-taking. The banter and camaraderie held up even at the lowest moments. The mutual abuse never stopped to everyone’s delight, and we only had one puncture. We sang as we rode through valleys and epic Scottish lochs, and cycled a naked mile in remotest Scotland to raise extra funding, but despite our location, we still passed a number of startled motorists, one of which stopped to take photos of us! She told us, “We don’t see this very often around here!” We had unbelievable moral and financial support from so many friends, family and often complete strangers. 'The charity involved supports two scientific rockstars in the US, Dr Seth Pollack and Dr Brian Rubin from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre and the Cleveland Clinic respectively, who are collaborating to work on a treatment where funding is required to run the initial stage of the trials. Recent developments look promising and they have already identified that immunotherapy has been successful on similar cancers so there is hope. Any funds that you could spare today would make a very real, personal impact on Milly and Alastair as well on the future path of research in this area’: https:// www.justgiving.com/Milly-Simmie1/

V A L E T E O S E N E W S

Chris Carey

2004 Kai-Ole Jensen (G, 2000-2004) writes: ‘I recently finished my doctoral thesis/ degree with the grading ‘magna cum laude - with great honour’. It was published in the journal Blood (Impact Factor 18). Now my wife and I are travelling from Canada to Chile over the course of one year with our VW Bus ‘Grenny’. Our progress is shown on www.amerikai.tk . Maybe OSE would like to meet up along the way!’ 2006 Chalumpon (Whale) Lotharukpong (H, 2001 - 2006) recently assisted Deputy Registrar Pamela Keeley-Butler giving a presentation on co-education at the British Council in Bangkok (British Boarding Schools and Sixth Form Colleges: How to be prepared for life at a UK boarding school) in association with Mentor International. Chalumpon spoke to the assembled Thai parents about his time at Teddies and was a fantastic OSE ambassador for Teddies, saying ‘My time at the school was one of the most important and precious events in my life and I have made many lifelong friends. That was the least I could do to give back to the school’.

Chalumpon at the British Council with Pippa Watt from Mentor International.