Gym buddies of dad with lung cancer raise more than £9,000 for research

Forever Strong raised over £9,000 for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

Gym buddies of a Middleton dad diagnosed with lung cancer united to raise a whopping £9,000 for research into the disease.

A member of Rochdale’s Forever Strong gym, Danny Whitworth, 36, an amateur boxing coach from Middleton was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year.

After struggling with what he thought was a severe chest infection from September last year, the Manchester United fan, a dad to two teenage daughters, was diagnosed with a malignant tumour.

Unable to shake it off, and after a number of trips to the doctors, a CT scan discovered fluid in Danny’s left lung, partial collapse of his left lung and swollen lymph node glands in and around the lung.

Gym owner and fitness instructor Gary Rothwell, fellow member Amr Nazir and other gym members wanted to do something to help, and so decided to raise awareness and funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation with a rowing marathon and other events to be held at their premises in Moss Mill Industrial Estate on Woodbine Street East.

The culmination of the four-hour event – which had a target to raise £5,000 –  saw gym member Amr have his head and body waxed, and managed to collect £7,882, topping £9,300 after gift aid.

After the event, Danny, who is currently undergoing treatment with Christies, said: “I’ve never seen so many people effortlessly pull in the same direction, it is genuinely amazing.

“The support and involvement of everyone in Forever Strong is overwhelming - thank you to every single one of you.”

Gary said: “This was an incredible effort. It only had two or so weeks of planning and everybody at the gym rose to the challenge we set to help a gym member and raise awareness of lung cancer.

“It just shows the special community we have at the gym and it is amazing to see everybody dig deep for one another.

“At the start of the year I said I wanted the gym to raise £18k for charity in 2018. And we are half way there with our first event.

“I’d just like to thank everyone who contributed - especially Amr who definitely went the extra mile on the day.”