Queen’s Club Fundraiser Honoring British Player Is Successful
Queen’s Club Fundraiser Honoring British Player Is Successful
Ross Hutchins, the British Davis Cup doubles player who is currently battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was the focus of Sunday’s Rally Against Cancer charity event that raised more than £200,000 ($300,000) for London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, maintains the experience was special and emotional.
Hutchins’ close friend Andy Murray donated the entirety of his £73,000 prize money to the charity after winning the Aegon Championships at London’s Queen’s Club for a third time in five years.
The world no.2 also played a charity match alongside Tim Henman against Ivan Lendl and Tomas Berdych before engaging in some on court hijinks with a host of celebrities including London mayor Boris Johnson and Virgin head Sir Richard Branson.
“The whole thing was an uplifting experience, maintained Hutchins, who underwent his final chemotherapy treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital last Thursday. “On a personal note, this event has come at a perfect time.
“It’s an odd coincidence as I was originally supposed to be on a three-month chemo plan. However, because the cancer had spread throughout my body and become more serious, it became six months. So my final session ended up being three days before the event.
“It worked out perfectly, and hopefully I’ll have the all-clear soon. It was great that my nurses, doctors and oncologist were at Queen’s. I feel strong now.”
Hutchins is insistent he wants to be sufficiently recovered to compete in next January’s Australian Open. The son of former British Davis Cup captain Paul Hutchins said: “When you’re going through treatment for cancer, there are so many times when you could be sitting at home twiddling your thumbs.
“Needless to say it is difficult but I used the Rally Against Cancer event as a way of helping me through. It kept me busy. I was writing lots of emails trying to sort things out and organize a great event, which took my mind off what I was going through.”
Both Murray and Queen’s tournament director Chris Kermode were also proactive in driving the day. “We decided to try to raise £100,000 ($150,000) for a great cause and try to entertain the crowd,” said Hutchins.
“Chris has a great reputation among the players because he runs two of the best events of the year — Queen’s and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the London O2.
“Once we had decided to do something, my best friend Andy Murray came to mind straight away. So the two of us went for dinner; I suggested we do something exciting on the final day of Queen’s.
“He was really up for it. We went to Chris’s house and the three of us came up with the idea of playing a doubles match with Tim Henman, Ivan Lendl and Tomas Berdych. They were all very keen.
“From there, it escalated to non-tennis celebrities, but it was very easy getting people involved. We had a shortlist of 15 people we wanted, drawn up mainly by Chris and me. Andy had a big input, too.”
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