Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
THEN AND NOW Phenomenal achievements
McGuigan family’s fundraising has spectacular results
It was a relatively unassuming small story of significant success in supporting a charity, appearing in the Advertiser around this time 13 years ago – but it heralded the start of a fundraising phenomenon.
Readers learned in the autumn of 2004 how Plains couple John and Maureen McGuigan had organised a 77-strong team of family and friends to take part in a 13-mile sponsored cycle for a second successive year.
Their efforts on the day had raised more than £5000 for leukaemia research – which they were supporting after John had been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia four years earlier, going on to receive a bone marrow transplant from younger brother Jamie the following year.
It went on to become a muchanticipated annual event for more than a decade; with Team McGuigan, as they have become known, now keeping their feet on the fundraising pedals in a different way by hosting an annual charity night.
Their latest fundraiser took place last weekend, and the finalised total will add to the magnificent total sum of more than £75,000 which they have collected for research programmes at Glasgow University since the start of their endeavours – and has even seen the introduction of a summer scholarship bearing their name.
Maureen told the Advertiser how the family first took on the bikeathon from Glasgow to Clydebank – with some also completing the return journey on two wheels – following a suggestion from much- loved doctor Professor Tessa Holyoake.
The Plains resident said: “They were looking to raise money for a research centre which they were trying to build at the time, and we’d wanted to know if there was anything we could do.
“She asked if we liked cycling and our answer was that we loved it; we had five grandsons and all their pals were all keen cyclists, and we’d get in training along the bike path from Plains to Bathgate.
“We started doing the bikeathon in 2003 and did it every year from then right up until and including 2014; we always took at least 70 adults and kids to take part and one year we had 100 in our team – out of the 350 people taking part in total.
“Our whole family took part; our son, daughters, their families and John’s eight brothers and sisters. Most did the 13mile route but a few did the 26 miles; and then we’d always come home to a big party.
“We’d have great support from local businesses and people helping with vans to get bikes and people to the start line and everybody really looked forward to it. We’d have people knocking the door weeks in advance asking when it would be happening and when the T-shirts would be ready!”
After a hugely successful decade participating in the annual bikeathon, Team McGuigan changed route from their 2015 fundraiser onwards and now run a charity night each year to continue their support for the charity.
They held their 2017 event last weekend – made all the more poignant following the sad death earlier this year of Professor Holyoake.
Maureen said: “She was John’s doctor, and went on to become the head clinician – she was a great person, so friendly and had plenty of time for you.
“She did so much to get the Paul O’Gorman research centre up and running and took so much to do with the bikeathon, starting it off every year and taking part with her family.
“It was so sad to lose her this year, and John and I were invited to a service celebrating her life; she had all that knowledge and had put in so much.”
The group’s fundraising has raised four-figure sums every year – ranging up to £7000 – since their very first sponsored cycle, and is handed over at a celebration event each October.
It contributes towards the university’s Paul O’Gorman leukaemia research centre, which opened in 2008 with Professor Holyoake at the helm following a six-year, £2.6 million fundraising drive.
The centre’s work now includes a summer research placement named in honour of Team McGuigan in recognition of their impressive contribution; which has also included further ventures including conquering munros and the West Highland Way.
Maureen said: “It’s an absolutely amazing place; we’ve been invited in to be shown around, and they do fantastic research there.
“They’re working hard to get a complete cure for chronic myeloid leukaemia and are trying to get a breakthrough for everyone; it’s amazing how it’s come on over the years, and it’s great to see.
“It’s incredible for there to be a McGuigan research scholarship, which is a summer placement – we were never even thinking along those lines, to have anything like that, and we definitely wouldn’t have thought that’s what would happen with our fundraising when we started out.
“John is still here and we’re just so happy to do something to give back, but the feedback from the research placement has been great.
“Now we’re having the charity night each year and people are absolutely incredible.
“You don’t expect so many to attend or to be able to raise so much money every time, but people are so generous in their support.”
They’re working hard to get a complete cure for chronic myeloid leukaemia and are trying to get a breakthrough . . .