Last Thursday saw Spinnaker host the annual OSCAR Dragon Boat Race, in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital. It was the first event since the pandemic and as the race has become a key calendar event for the shipping industry since its inception in 2011, it was great to be reunited with industry peers for a fun day on the water.
The event was kindly sponsored by Oldendorff, and over 20 teams battled it out to be crowned the winner. There was fierce competition, lots of laughs and finally A.M Nomikos out-rowed the competition to become the 2022 champions. While having some fun on the water is certainly important, the aim of the OSCAR Dragon Boat Race is to raise money for an incredibly worthy cause.
Oscar, the namesake of the boat race is the son of our co-founder and chairman Phil Parry. Oscar survived a 5-year battle with two different leukaemias and was saved by three transplants including an entirely new experimental treatment. Proceeds raised from the Dragon Boat Race support the three-year fellowship in his name.
The OSCAR Fellowship is carrying out critical leukaemia treatment and research to find out why the innovative CAR-T cell therapy doesn’t work in about half of the children who relapse. By solving that problem, we can save those children and ensure their families don’t have to suffer more heartache.
We are very excited to share that the proceeds raised in 2022 represent our biggest fundraising year yet, with £217,000 going towards this critical leukaemia research. Huge thanks to Union Maritime, which raised nearly half of the fundraising total. This year’s money brings the total raised for Great Ormond Street Hospital since the first Dragon Boat Race in 2011 to £2.5 million.
We’re incredibly proud of the great work we’re supporting and look forward to seeing you all out on the water again next year!
You can see some photos from the day on our Flickr page and find out more about the event on our website.
w: flickr.com/photos/spinnaker1997
w: spinnaker-global.com/oscar
e: [email protected]
