It's eyes down for five friends in 24 hour fundraising charity game-athon - The Redditch Standard

It's eyes down for five friends in 24 hour fundraising charity game-athon

Redditch Editorial 23rd Aug, 2018   0

FIVE friends who live and work in Redditch will be doing a 24-hour gaming marathon this bank holiday weekend to raise money for a specialist eye charity close to their hearts.

Local lads Paul Mitchell, Jon Brookes, Ben Durham, Kamil Watkowski and Ash Brock, will be ‘geeking out’ and gaming straight from 3pm on Friday, August 24 through to 3pm on Saturday, August 25.

The team are raising money for Moorfields Eye Charity – the charitable branch associated with Moorfield’s Eye Hospital – which helps patients with rare and genetic eye conditions by funding pioneering research, training future specialists and shaping the future of eye care.

The team have already smashed their initial £300 target and are now hoping to double it.




If the £600 mark is reached by Tuesday, August 28, both Paul and Kamil have agreed to ‘brave the shave’ for the charity too by shaving their heads completely, live on social media.

“This charity is particularly close to my heart as they are currently helping one of my relatives, who suffers from a condition which is likely to leave him completely blind by the time he’s 50,” said Paul.


“At just 28 years-old his condition is already becoming noticeable and as a family we’ll do anything we can to stop it.

“The hospital is conducting research into this very rare condition, known as choroideremia, and hopefully, with a bit of luck and support from fundraising like this, they’ll be able to stop it progressing and make sure he’ll still be able to see his children grow up.

“If we reach target my relatives will be shaving my hair off too – so please help me make it worthwhile!”

Choroideremia is a rare inherited disorder that causes progressive vision loss, ultimately leading to complete blindness.

“People laughed when we said we’d be gaming for 24 hours assuming that it’s easy.

“It’s true that it is a lot of fun – for about the first 11 hours. After that point tiredness sets in and you end up speaking gibberish whilst still trying to play complex games.

“We’ll be streaming our progress live on social media so you can keep track of how we’re doing.”

To make a donation please go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paul-mitchell46

More information about Moorfields Eye Charity is available here: https://www.moorfieldseyecharity.org.uk/

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