When Jake Hargrave suddenly lost all of his hair last year, he made it his mission to fundraise for a children’s cancer charity.

GNSWIM1
Jake took on the #GreatSwim challenge earlier this month.

Aged 15, Jake lost all of his hair in 2015 as the result of an auto immune disorder. Whilst this knocked his confidence, Jake decided to look at the positives of his situation. Feeling lucky that he did not have a more serious underlying health issue such as cancer, Jake’s mission to raise funds for a children’s cancer charity by taking part in the Great North Swim began!

Unfortunately at 15 years old Jake was too young to take part in the 2015 challenge – instead handing the fundraising baton to his Mum Jacqui who raised over £2000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. However, Jake set his sights on the 2016 challenge, which took place once he’d turned 16.

GNSWIM2
The Great North Swim challenge involves open water swimming in Lake Windermere.

So earlier this June, Jake found himself swimming (with a newly returned full head of hair) in Lake Windermere alongside other Great North Swim participants, to raise funds and awareness for Candlelighters. To date, his determination and hard work has raised a staggering total of over £1000 for Candlelighters! He has also been interviewed by H2Open Magazine to raised invaluable awareness of childhood cancer and Candlelighters across the country.

Here at Candlelighters we would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to Jake for all of his hard work training and fundraising and to everyone that has supported him along the way! The money Jake has raised through this challenge will make a great difference to those Yorkshire families affected by childhood cancer.

You might also like...

Company of the month… The Alchemist Bar & Restaurant
We are so pleased to announce our latest Company of the Month is The Alchemist Bar & Restaurant Greek Street! This month we would like to celebrate The Alchemist Bar & Restaurant on Greek Street for their fantastic fundraising efforts for Candlelighters. Throughout November and December, The Alchemist ran a nationwide festive fundraising campaign across …
Combine your New Year resolution with fundraising!
We are urging people with a challenge event on their New Year wish list to consider combining their run, epic hike or obstacle course, with fund-raising for Candlelighters. To spur on participants, we have issued a list of our main physical challenge events for 2025 with many having an early bird discount of 50% on …
Celebrating the first year of our pioneering at-home chemotherapy service
This month we’re celebrating the successful first year of a pioneering at-home chemotherapy service for children funded by Candlelighters.  Throughout 2024, we funded a brand new NHS role, the Candlelighters’ Chemotherapy Project Nurse Specialist. The role will be funded by Candlelighters for two years to enable evidence to be built of the benefits of chemotherapy …