24-hour darts fundraiser set to raise hundreds for QA after Copnor resident's kidney transplant gave him a 'new lease of life'

The event, which will see punters play darts across a 24 hour period at The Stag in Fratton, is hoped to raise £500 for the renal department at Queen Alexandra hospital after staff did their utmost to support Copnor man Allan Harper through a difficult five years as he waited for a kidney transplant.

Organised by bar staff, including member Rachael May and landlady Karen Andrews, Stag staff will join Allan’s daughter Tina Burrell in drumming up support for the event.

In January this year, Allan was given a life saving kidney transplant at QA that meant he could come off dialysis.

Following a car crash in 2016, Allan was diagnosed with a serious renal condition. Doctors revealed that both of his kidneys were just 10 per cent functional.

He says that thanks to the ‘good work’ from the team’s renal department, his new kidney has given him a ‘new lease of life’.

The 63-year-old said: ‘I can't fault them. Everything they do is towards your health and they just keep up the good work. They are the pinnacle of the society who live in Portsmouth. It's not just Portsmouth they deal with, it's all the surrounding areas. It's given me another lease of life.’

In 2018, a similar darts fundraiser took place at the watering hole where Tina and The Stag staff raised £1500 for QA.

After teaming up with The Stag staff a second time the event was a no-brainer.

Tina said: ‘Me and a few of my friends who play darts with The Stag thought let's do a darts marathon for 24 hours because even though I couldn't give Allan a kidney - I can give something back to the renal department. Not just for my dad but for other renal patients.’

Allan had a long wait for his kidney transplant which was extended by the pandemic.

‘We got a call on January 2 that they had a kidney so they went in at 2 in the morning, the longest day ever, to then about 11.30 at night to say the kidney wasn't any good. I was thinking it would be another six months to 12 months. 20 days later he gets a kidney.

‘I thought maybe we could do another one to thank the staff but the landlady was always going to pencil it in anyway. She said it would be a celebration of my dad getting the kidney.’

Landlady Karen Andrews added: ‘We want to give QA something back. At the end of the day they don't get an awful lot of help so I must admit if we do anything we try to do something that will help directly rather than the whole charity sort of thing that would be amazing. We did quite well last time so it will be quite good to get even more people involved.’

Tina is planning to auction off a Pompey signed shirt to raise additional funds for the department.

The fundraiser will be held on Saturday, August 13 and Sunday, August 14 starting from noon.

See justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thestag-pub