Rhian Cowburn, Christie fundraiser

Rhian decided she wanted to support The Christie charity after her friend’s mum received cancer treatment at the hospital. She said her friend’s mum experienced incredible care at The Christie, and Rhian wanted to help make sure more people could receive the same level of first-class cancer care.

As the co-founder and owner of Hackney-based fitness studio Strong + Bendy, Rhian knew she wanted to take on an extreme fundraising challenge. She said that after taking on loads of different endurance events in the past, she craved more and more physically punishing challenges.

Rhian settled on a gruelling burpee marathon challenge, where she would do 12 hours of burpees back-to-back. She wanted to do the 12-hour burpee challenge as most people hate burpees, and Rhian thought it would be a particularly tough endurance task.

On 17 May, Rhian took on the 12-hour burpee challenge at her studio in Hackney. She was joined by different people throughout the day who all came down to support her and take part. At 10pm, Rhian finished her challenge, having completed an unbelievable 3,205 burpees over 12 hours.

“Normally the thought of doing even 10 or 20 burpees is awful for people, so I got excited about the challenge of taking on such an extreme challenge.
“The incredible supporters (some of whom came from many miles away) got me through the pain. Hours 6 to 10 were some of the hardest of my whole life, but the last 2 hours went by in a blur of excitement, and I actually managed to enjoy them!
“The Christie have given the most exceptional care to my friend’s mam over the last 2 years. I wanted to do something to ensure they can continue their amazing work.”

 - Rhian, Christie supporter

Rhian managed to smash her fundraising target of £2,000, raising more than an incredible £3,400! We’d like to say a big well done and thanks to Rhian for her amazing fundraising work. Fundraising like this helps make sure we can keep supporting cancer patients, above and beyond NHS funding.

Do you want to support The Christie charity? Our ideas generator has lots of inventive and interesting ways you can raise money for The Christie.

Or if you fancy taking on an organised event, check out our events calendar to see what events you can take part in for The Christie.

Any support you can give will help us keep touching patients' lives today, tomorrow and beyond.