'˜Amazing' support for cancer battler at charity rugby game

The game, which took place down in Southsea today, saw a game between RAC Barbarians and a team picked by Graham Street for the Rugby Against Cancer event.

The match was raising funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, Children With Cancer and Bowel Cancer UK '“ as well as helping Southsea rugby player Adam Long, who is battling stage four pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer and is looking to raise £100,000 for specialist treatment outside of the NHS.

So far, he has raised £30,000, after only starting the fundraising last week.

Adam said: '˜The response has been amazing '“ everyone has been so generous and I can't thank them enough.

'˜To be at £30,000 already is just incredible. Both the rugby community and the people of Portsmouth have shown how remarkable they are.

'˜Today shows just how wonderful the rugby community is around here; it's about more than just one person and you can see just how well everyone pulls together.

'˜To see so many people taking a stand against cancer like this is amazing.'

Graham Street, 54 from Paulsgrove, said: '˜It feels fantastic to do an event like this to stand up to cancer.

'˜Hope fully this takes off and becomes a mainstay event for years to come.'

Aaron Beesley, 30 from Southsea, helped to organise the event.

He said: '˜This is the first time we have done this event and it has gone really well.

'˜The event was all planned out but when we all heard about Adam's cancer we knew that, as a rugby family, it would be important to do something for him.

'˜He's one of our own and we will always have his back.'