By Thomas Kemp

Earlier this summer, I took part in a charity cycle run which was arranged by my company here in Brussels. This was organised in support of one of our colleagues in the UK, who is not only surviving pancreatic cancer but is also actively campaigning to raise both awareness and funds to fight this deadly disease.

So what has this got to do with BUFC, you might be asking. Well, in order to help raise funds I needed to find some people to sponsor me on my own short cycle ride, and who better to ask than all the fabulously affluent players of both BUFC Veterans' squads. But even more relevant to asking BUFC Vets was the fact that my colleague in the UK who has organised the much larger initiative is called Les Niewiara and some time ago (early nineties to be exact) he was a key player for BUFC, and has retained good memories of both the club and his ex-team mates. A short biog of Les' time at BUFC is as follows:

Les joined BUFC in 1991, and played for 4 seasons until 1995 at which time he left Brussels to return to the UK. He was a regular in the first team alongside such BUFC stalwarts as Willy Swartjes, Jez Dixson, Sean Murray and Frank Brady. Plus some others that I don't recall, of course. Les was the BUFC Player of the Year award in the season '93-'94, and told me that he still proudly displays the award at home. Upon leaving BUFC, he effectively 'retired' from football (any other club would have been such a let down, after all) and took up squash, but having rediscovered the old magic in the last 3 years Les has now returned to the 11-a-side game with a Veterans team in South Hertfordshire - Tansley Veterans FC. A friendly match between BUFC Vets and Tansley has been mooted for some time in the spring of 2009 - as soon as we sort out the new season's fixtures from ABSSA then the planning will become more detailed.

The reason we held a cycle run was linked to the series of events that Les has organised, called Bike to the Future 2008 - 'Ride around the World' Much more information can be found on the website http://www.biketothefuture.org.uk including details of the main event which is a team cycle run from London to Krakow.

In all I managed to raise 420 Euros towards the fund, and of this sum 250 Euros came directly from BUFC players and their friends or family. Additionally, some people chose to donate directly on Les' website. So thanks very much to all of you for your contribution to a very worthwhile cause. Of course the campaign continues, and you can find out more information at the above mentioned website.

Cheers,
Tam