These are the volunteers who organised last weekend’s Relay for Life in Pontypool Park.
I spoke to Eve Perkins, one of the team who put on the annual fundraiser that sees teams walk around Pontypool Park for 24-hours to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
We chatted at 10.02am on Sunday 5 July 2026, just 58 minutes before the end of the relay. The atmosphere was brilliant, with people dancing to music from SW20 Radio, who broadcast live from the park’s bandstand throughout the event.
Eve said: “Pontypool Relay for Life is an incredibly special event because this is our tenth relay, so it’s a massive year for us.
“We’re currently around £300 away from £50,000 and we’ve got an hour to go, so if we hit that £50k mark before the end, it’ll be great.
“It just brings the community together as well as raising lifesaving funds for Cancer Research. Where this money will go is absolutely incredible.
“It’s to raise life-saving funds for kinder, more efficient and more effective treatment.
“Relay for Life as a whole is just an incredible event, the festival feel, it supports the bands, and the food stalls and stands and all of that, so it’s really just the general event as well as the message of ‘together we can beat cancer sooner.’
“I think the whole concept ‘cancer doesn’t sleep, so neither will we’ is an important message.
“It’s making it clear that yes, we see glimpses of people who live with cancer, people who are affected with cancer, but that whole concept that cancer doesn’t sleep, so neither will we, is massive because it’s kind of shining the light on when you stay awake for the whole 24-hours this is what those people who are living with cancer are going through. It’s non-stop for them.
“When we set up, some people think we have a wedding going on, on the Friday. We have to say ‘no, it’s not’, but then they come and then they show up on the Saturday.”
Eve joked that after a previous relay, she got home, tucked into a McDonald’s, and fell asleep with a chip still in her hand. Her plan after this year’s event was to relax by watching the British Grand Prix, stay awake, and try to get back into a normal sleep routine as soon as possible.
And did they smash through the £50,000 total? Of course they did 🙂 The total raised from the last 24-hours is currently £51,740.
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