Member Article

Brooke and Bully tee-off to support charity

One of the world’s greatest rugby number 8s went head-to-head with arguably the Black Country’s most iconic football number 9 yesterday as part of a major fundraising event.

Zinzan Brooke, who played 58 tests for the All Blacks and was the only rugby played to score a drop goal at Wembley Stadium, faced Wolverhampton Wanderers legend Steve Bull at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Golf Day.

The event, held at the prestigious Astbury Golf Course in Bridgnorth, raised more than £3000 and saw 114 golfers across 26 teams do battle for the coveted title.

It’s the latest in a long line of activities organised by First 4 Staff Director Jason Guy, after his wife Lucy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, aged just 31.

The local entrepreneur – working with friends, family and business colleagues – has put on quiz nights, sporting dinners, and even a horse show to bring the current total up to an impressive £40,000.

“We’re naturally delighted to hit such a big milestone and to do it in such style, with one of the all time rugby ‘greats’ and one of my footballing heroes leading two of the teams out,” explained Jason.

“When we first set out on this charity drive we set ourselves the target of getting to £1000. Thanks to the generosity of the people Lucy and I knew this was achieved in a week and before you knew it we were past £10,000.”

He went on to add: “Now that we’ve hit £40,000, we are hoping the next big milestone will be £50,000. It’s a fantastic charity and one we picked because of its pioneering approach to research and finding a cure for this horrible disease.”

The Golf Day, which was sponsored by Wolverhampton demolition specialist C&D Consultancy, also attracted former Wolves players Don Goodman, John Richards and Kenny Hibbitt, not to mention a host of leading names from the Black Country business scene, including Altodigital, Goodchilds and SB Waste.

The winning team was from KPMG whilst Zinzan’s team took the honours, finishing two shots ahead of ‘Bully’ in the battle of the rugby and football legends.

C&D Consultancy boss John Woodward concluded: “We do a lot of work with First 4 Staff and was delighted to co-sponsor this event with Jason and his team.

“To play golf with sporting legends is one thing, but to be able to do so whilst raising money for such an important charity is fantastic. It just shows what the Black Country business community can achieve when it pulls together for a common cause.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .