On Thursday 19 November, the Northampton High School community came together once more in order to celebrate our first ever ‘Purple Day’, in support of Mr Bailey and Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Throughout the month of November, which is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, our staff and students have been undertaking a host of exciting activities and challenges as part of the charity’s ‘Challenge 24’ initiative. As you will have read in previous articles, we have seen people run for 24 minutes every day, make and sell 24 jars of homemade preserve, face masks and sweetie bags, and lots more.
19 November is World Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day, and we saw this as the perfect time to hold Purple Day, a day in which the school turned purple and came together to enjoy fun tasks, take on gruelling challenges, and ultimately raise awareness and show support. The day kicked off bright and early, with our Director of Sport, Mrs Blake, setting off at 7:30am for her gruelling 24 mile run around the school playing field. Not content on just running 24 miles, Mrs Blake added the extra 2.2 miles to make a full marathon – completing the exhausting run in an amazing 4 hours and 4 minutes – a PB! Students of all ages took part in their own fun activities, which included the Year 6 students taking on 24 physical and fun activities ranging from ‘hook a duck’ to ‘netball shots’ to our Year 5 pupils completing challenges from their homes, such as ’24 purple pirouettes’ and ’24 songs played on the flute’. It wasn’t just our current students who got involved during the day, with the Class of 2020 gathering for an online Zoom call to catch up, but to also discuss cancer, and how they can raise awareness and help educate those around them.
With fundraising activities set to continue throughout the month, we are looking forward to completing more challenges and ultimately raising more money and support for a fantastic cause. With the fundraising total standing at £5,937 at time of writing – smashing our original goal of £1,000 – we are looking to finish Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month strongly and help this amazing charity as much as they can. To visit our fundraising team page, please click here, and to view more photos from Purple Day, please click here.
