A Winchester man has completed a five-round golfing marathon, raising almost £2,000 for Epilepsy Action, the UK’s largest member-led epilepsy charity.
Robert Wilson, 66, the South Winchester Golf Club Captain, completed the 16-hour golf day on Saturday 24 July at South Winchester Golf Club. Robert and three of his friends at the club played five rounds of golf without using buggies. The group was raising money to set up a new branch in Winchester to support people with epilepsy in the area.
Epilepsy Action was an obvious choice of charity for Robert in his year in office. Robert has a son with epilepsy and the Lady Captain, Mary Lou Viljoen, had a sister who passed away during an epileptic seizure.
Robert said: “We calculated that five times round the course which is 6,750 yards long, plus zigzagging about looking for lost balls and walking from one green to the next tee we covered between 28 and 30 miles. Along the way we collectively hit collectively about 1600 golf shots! We started at 4.20am and finished around 7.25pm. We felt pretty good but we were ready for a beer or two!”
“Not all the money is in yet but it looks as if we will have raised nearly £2,000 as a result of this day. We had no major sponsor just masses of lovely people that gave us their individual contributions. We hope this will really help the new epilepsy branch in Winchester get fully up and running.”
There is still time to support Robert by emailing him at robert@casadaoliveira.co.uk.
For more information about the new Winchester branch of Epilepsy Action contact Mark McDaid on 01291 621 478 or email mmcdaid@epilepsy.org.uk
Epilepsy Action branches offer the opportunity for people to share their experiences of living with epilepsy and also raise awareness of the condition in the local community. Branch events include speaking evenings, fundraising and social activities.
Epilepsy Action celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this year. The charity directly helps more than 688,000 people every year through a range of services including its advice and information service, branch network, Epilepsy Helpline freephone 0808 800 5050 and award-winning website, www.epilepsy.org.uk