Young athletes to cycle London to Brussels to fight testicular cancer

Six young men from Maidenhead, Cookham, Marlow and beyond have raised £5,000 for a London to Brussels bike ride in aid of a testicular cancer charity.

All six are all athletes who play a variety of sports and classmates from secondary school reunited. Together, they are the Betty Swollocks Cycling Team – ‘boys biking to Brussels for all things balls.’

The ride is in aid of the Oddballs Foundation, founded in 2015 to raise awareness of testicular cancer. One in 250 males will be diagnosed with this disease in their lifetime.

Ben Thum is an Oddballs ambassador from Maidenhead and a rugby player. He will be leading the team.

“Everybody in the team’s had family members affected by cancer,” he said.

“We feel that young sportsmen are ideally positioned to break down the stigma around testicular cancer, particularly among young people.”

Joining Ben are five other young athletes: Felix Thum (Ben’s younger brother) a football player; Will Houghton from Cookham, who plays rugby; Toby Fry from Marlow, a hockey player; Tom Marshall, Marlow, also playing rugby; and Alfie Green from High Wycombe, who plays squash.

All the young men are amateur in their sport and play in the BUCS university leagues.

Will was a South East rugby player as well as playing for Maidenhead before leaving to study in Cardiff, while Alfie was ranked number 18 in the country.

The five 20-year-olds and one 18-year-old all went to John Hampden Grammar School in Wycombe together, before four of them moved to William Borlase in Marlow for A levels.

They then all dispersed to different universities so are ‘delighted’ at the opportunity to reunite for this important cause.

“It’s been great to catch up with the boys and train together,” said Will.

“We’ve been training up and down the steep hills to get in condition, then stopping at local pubs to recharge.”

Ben said that next term, he will also be ‘as many local schools as will have me’ to raise awareness of the risks of testicular cancer.

团队需要赞助,但也追随者ocial media too – as it’s ‘not just about raising funds, but raising awareness for this terrible, life-threatening disease’.

They can be found and followed on social media at:

• The ‘Betty Swollocks’ page on Facebook
• bettyswollockscycling on Instagram
• @bettyswollocks on X (formerly Twitter)

The six set off on Monday.