MBE for Kintbury fundraiser

Father-of-three 'humbled and elated'

A KINTBURY man who has helped raise around £1.4m for breast cancer research has been honoured by the Queen.

Simon Halden was appointed the MBE in the New Year Honours list.

The 64-year-old father of three said he was both “humbled and elated” to receive the news.

Mr Halden, who lives in Newbury Street, is a co-founder of the Sarah Greene Tribute Fund for Breast Cancer Now.

Mrs Greene died in 2006 from triple negative breast cancer, which is an aggressive form of the disease with limited treatment options.

Mr Halden said: “It’s a very small charity run by a group of pals. All the money raised goes directly to funding fellowships at the breast cancer research unit at King’s College Hospital in London.

“We are close friends with Sarah’s family, and we were living in West Woodhay at the time she died.

“One day I was enjoying a glass of wine with her husband Peter and we hit on the idea of raising money by a cycle ride to help fund research into a cure.”

The first ride was to Paris in 2008 and Mr Halden said: “It just blossomed from there. We’ve raised about £1.4m so far. We’ve had great support from local businesses like Banjo Cycles in Newbury. Each ride has been a challenge, generally taking three days and covering around 100 miles per day.”

The next ride is scheduled for October, if the coronavirus vaccination programme allows it.

Mr Halden said: “I’ll be proud to accept the MBE on behalf of Sarah’s family and of Hen Wheatman, one of the charity co-founders.”

For more information on the charity visit the website at http://www.sarahgreene.org/

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