A YORK vet, who has dedicated decades to caring for pets, is taking part in a month-long challenge for a cause that's close to his heart.
Andy MacGregor is taking on Cancer Research UK’s Push-Up Challenge to raise money for life-saving research.
The cause is close to Andy’s heart following the death of his father who was diagnosed with bone cancer in his 60s, and his daughter’s experience of living with leukaemia when she was a child.
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Andy is part of the central support team at veterinary group VetPartners, based at Clifton Moor in York, and which is backing his fundraising efforts.
The sponsored challenge involves doing 100 push-ups a day throughout November and has won the support of fundraisers across the nation like Andy whose lives have been affected by cancer.
After trying different sequences, Andy has settled on doing five lots of 20 push-ups for a few days and then switching to doing four lots of 25, with five minutes in between.
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The father-of-three who is more likely to be found cycling or on a squash court than doing push-ups said: “This challenge captured my imagination because we all know someone who has had cancer and one in three of us will end our time on earth with it.
“My daughter Katie has had cancer. She had leukaemia and had chemotherapy when she was ten. She is okay now. My dad James had bone cancer in his late 60s, so he was still quite young. He died about 20 years ago. It hits everybody. This seemed like a big challenge for me and a worthwhile cause.
“My role at VetPartners involves a lot of thinking, so something like this is a nice way to release energy. I am doing the challenge at the end of the working day. I get home and put the music on. I have never been able to do push-ups. My eldest son is a sportsman, so he is giving me advice on diet and stretching.
“For me it is about the personal challenge and my own feelings about cancer. We have been given a fundraising target of £150. With everybody’s help I want to top that and raise as much as possible. The more we find out about this awful disease, the better chance we have of stopping the suffering.
“I am finding it tough. Getting to the end of the challenge will be massive. The more support I can get, the better. It means a lot to have VetPartners’ support behind me. It gives me that extra motivation.”
VetPartners’ employees can boost their fundraising efforts by applying for part or match-funding from the veterinary group’s £120,000 charitable fund which pledges £10,000 a month to help worthy causes.
Click here to support Andy.
As part of its community support, VetPartners also gives employees paid time off to volunteer one day a year for a charity or worthy cause.
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