Westbury fundraiser extraordinaire, Gary Cook, has won the Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year award for the West Country region and will now attend the national final in London.
Gary has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local cancer charities through the Rodney Cook Memorial Rally – a giant metal detecting rally held annually in memory of his father who died from cancer in 2017.
Later this month, Gary will be attending the national final of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards in London which will be hosted by Carol Vorderman and Ashley Banjo and will be broadcast in a primetime slot on ITV. The awards celebrate the nation’s unsung heroes – including inspirational fundraisers – and each year, each ITV region sends one winner with Gary being chosen last month as Fundraiser of the Year for the West Country region.
“It was a massive surprise just to be nominated and to win is absolutely brilliant,” he said.
“We’re going to the national finals later this month and I think Prince William is expected to be there. To be in the running to be the Pride of Britain Fundraiser for the whole country is amazing.
“We were nominated anonymously for the award and ITV then contacted us to say we had made the final four for the West Country,” said Gary. “They then came to our rally last month to shoot a mini-film which was broadcast on ITV.
“To tell us that we had won, ITV actually tricked me into going to the RUH for a meeting. All the members of staff at the Dyson Cancer Centre were there and then the ITV film crew popped out and said, “Congratulations, you’re the regional winner of the fundraiser of the year award. It was a complete shock.”
Gary established the Rodney Cook Memorial (RCM) Rally in 2018 to raise money for cancer services at the Royal United Hospital in Bath and the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. It has grown so much in popularity that tickets sell out in a matter of minutes and people come from across the world to attend the event, which has been dubbed “the Glastonbury of metal detecting”.
With the funds raised this year, the donations should pass the £400,000 mark.
For three years, Rodney was treated at the Royal United Hospitals (RUH) Bath and after his death, Gary came up with the idea of the metal detecting rally which he has organised annually with help from a small group of other volunteers. “This award is for all of us at the RCM Rally,” said Gary. “The RCM family should be feeling very, very proud of themselves tonight.”
Up until this summer, the team had donated £318,000 to charity – with the funds split between the RUH and the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. Gary is now hoping that over £100,000 will also be donated from this year’s rally, and from other smaller events held during the year, including a ‘No Frills’ mini rally which was held last weekend in Malmesbury. Although smaller than the main rally, it still saw over 500 people in attendance.
