Chris Harding Memorial Walk in aid of Prostate Cancer Research
Berkshire Seniors Cricket is pleased to announce that a memorial walk for Chris will be held in association with Ron Hedley’s March for Prostate Cancer and the Bob Willis Fund.
Chris had been diagnosed with stage 4 Prostate Cancer in September 2017 and it had spread to his bones. Chris, a wicket keeper batsman, played his club cricket at Royal Ascot over many successful seasons. In May 1999, 2 months before his 50th birthday, Chris played in a friendly for Berkshire Seniors, and there started a long career playing Seniors 50’s and thereafter 60’s and 70’s cricket. Chris took part in many overseas tours with the county, to the Caribbean, to La Manga in Spain, and to Malta. Even after his diagnosis Chris was determined that he would keep playing as long as his body would let him and turned out for a few of the first 70’s games in a combined side with Bucks. In 2022, with an eye to no longer playing, he then qualified as an umpire to keep his interest and involvement in the game, and to keep him in contact with the many friends he had met through playing cricket.
Ron Hedley, Bucks Seniors, has been a passionate advocate for prostate cancer awareness since 2017 when he joined Jeff Stelling’s March for Men to raise funds for prostate cancer research. Just a year later, in November 2018, Ron was diagnosed with prostate and bone cancer himself. Determined to make a difference, he has worked tirelessly to spread the message that this disease will affect 1 in 8 men and to encourage men to get checked out.
Chris was a great supporter of Ron Hedley’s charity and took part in some of Ron’s early walks around Bucks. These charity walks were the forerunner of Ron’s big push to take the message about PSA testing to as large an audience as possible, through the association with over 60’s and over 70’s cricket. By the end of 2025, 43 walks had taken place across England and Wales, with a walk in Malta and a cricket tour to play St Peter’s Vatican Cricket Club in Rome. To date, over £88,000 has been raised by Ron. A forthcoming Essex walk is going to be recorded by the BBC and will appear in a Songs of Praise, hopefully in August.
Berkshire’s walk will take place on Friday 10th July, at 10.30am, starting and finishing at the Rowbarge in Woolhampton, RG7 5SH. The walk, approximately 3.5 miles, is alongside the Kennet and Avon canal, the Kennet River and surrounding countryside. Chris loved his walks, the countryside and a beer, and all those are available on the day!
Ron and his wife, Pat, join all the walks, and it is available for anyone to join the walk. Chris’s widow, Pauline will be taking part, as will hopefully some Buck’s players,
Walkers’s are presented with a Ron’s March T shirt, which this year features a sleeve dedicated to Chris’s memory, a Bob Willis Fund Cap, plus badges and a booklet on prostate cancer. These items do have a cost so all walkers are asked to donate a minimum of £25 to the cause, or as much as they can afford.
To make a donation follow the link to www.bobwillisfund.org/ronsmarch and put Ron’s Berkshire Seniors Walk in the reference, and if you able to add gift aid please do.
Finally, so that the organisers have an idea of numbers attending on the day, please email Colin Ainger on colin_ainger@yahoo.co.uk to let him know you will be attending. If you would like a T-shirt please add your size. We hope to see as many of you as possible on the day to support Chris’ memory and Ron’s very worthy cause.