The generosity of music lovers has been praised after another five star fundraiser at the annual RockthePav festival.
The afternoon showcase of local bands at a packed Pavilion in Broadstairs raised a few pounds shy of £1,200 for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund.
It brings the running total from music events run by the RockthePav team since 2018 to £12,700.
The organisers of RTP7 said: “What amazing generosity. Yet again our event was so well supported and we are overwhelmed at how much was raised in just five hours.
“Huge thanks go to the excellent musicians, sound crew, helpers, and the Pavilion, who all gave so freely of their time to make this event happen.
“Behind the afternoon of fabulous performances lies many, many hours of hard work by a small team putting this event together – we thank them for their continued dedication and enthusiasm.
“Special praise also goes to our local media who supported us with online, radio and printed press – they helped put our message across in the days leading up to the show.”
The music was once again of the highest quality with diverse sets from Free Lunch, Lodestone, Laurel Canyon Appreciation Society and The Steve Paterson Band. Master of Ceremonies was once again Frank Harvey.
Yasmin Bailey local fundraising co-ordinator from the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and her fellow volunteers were on hand throughout with advice and support. Yasmin gave fundraising updates from the stage to cheers from the packed venue.
After the donations were counted and banked she said: “What a fantastic result – Rock The Pav 2025 brought in an amazing £1196.00.
“I never cease to be amazed at the extreme generosity of these wonderful people especially in these somewhat challenging financial times. I am so very grateful to them in being part of this extremely important work which is aimed at finding better outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.
“My great thanks go to all involved – I can imagine the work and dedication of everyone concerned to put on these fantastic performances for us.”
Further thanks go to Frank Harvey who once again was MC for the event; and to sponsors the RSK Group, a leading integrated environmental, engineering and technical services business.
*Rock the Pav 7 has brought the local PCRF group’s total of funds raised since 2013 up to £67,002 which is an amazing result.
Yasmin explained that these funds will support the existing five research projects recently awarded grants by the charity totalling just over £1million and are well underway at leading universities. These are focused on either early detection of pancreatic cancer or new treatments for the disease.
One of the earlier projects, namely the urine-based early detection test for pancreatic cancer, is now back on track after progress was stalled by the Covid pandemic and its aftermath. This £1.6 million clinical study has been funded by the charity to validate a urine test that can detect early-stage pancreatic cancer which is particularly important as 80% of pancreatic cancer patients are only detected at late stage (3-4) with the survival rate being exceedingly low. Around 90% of people with stage 4 pancreatic cancers die within a year.
The charity continues to fund the National Pancreas Tissue Bank which has just been awarded ISO certification (International Standardisation Organisation) recognised benchmarks for quality. There are only a handful of pancreas biobanks in the world with this ISO certificate.
Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund : To find out more about the work and research that PCRF undertake, go online to www.pcrf.org.uk or contact local fund raising co-ordinator Yasmin Bailey at [email protected] or phone 01843 491695
