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One More Round for Roy

Roy Jewitt and friend Matt Horder. 

Roy Jewitt is a well- known community member, father of four, and active in local sports and fundraising, notably for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and cancer research.

In October 2024 Roy suffered a major stroke at home after a day of work, cooking dinner and going to the gym. Roy was rushed to Wagga Hospital by ambulance and then transferred to Canberra Hospital where he underwent surgery to remove blood clots from his brain. Roy was recovering well when on that Sunday his brain started to swell and he underwent emergency surgery again, where they removed part of his skull to relieve the pressure. Roy has been recovering from his stroke since the surgery, undergoing a period of rehabilitation in the Canberra University Rehabilitation Hospital in Belconnen, before being moved to the Mercy Care Centre in Young, where he is still undergoing rehabilitation daily.

A passionate team of locals including Matt Horder, and his son, Jesse Jewitt are organising a 24-hour fundraising event, featuring a Row, Ride, Run challenge, every hour on the hour for 24 hours. This is an event that Roy himself was going to undertake as a fundraiser for MND.

The Row, Ride, Run challenge will be accompanied by a 24-hour Walking Relay for Roy.

The event is running from 5 pm on Friday the 21st of February and will conclude on Saturday the 22nd of February at Cranfield Oval in Young. The event will include live entertainment on Friday night with Lukie Jewitt, The Kirks and The Young Ones taking to the stage to motivate participants, entertainment will continue on Saturday with other local performers and the School of Music taking to the stage.

There is fantastic merchandise for sale including Roy singlets, T-shirts and caps. There will be a 24-hour canteen and coffee machine, ice cream on Saturday afternoon, a cake stall, and some games and activities for the kids.

The organisers would like to remind everyone that this is a no-alcohol and family-friendly event.

One of the organisers, Wendy Silk, spoke on their motivations to promote the event.

“Roy Jewitt is a name that we all know, and the community are very interested in his recovery even if they don’t know him personally. There is the impression that healthy younger people don’t have strokes, but we know that this type of thing doesn’t discriminate. Being fit and healthy how- ever will aid Roy in his recovery, along with his positive attitude and determination.

We are encouraging the whole community to get involved in our fundraiser, with proceeds shared with 25% To MND Research, 25% to the Stroke Foundation and 50% to aid Roy and his family.” The team aims to raise $50,000.

To register go to the “One More Round for Roy” on Facebook, and follow through to the website. You can register for an “Hour of Power “to Row or Ride with our challenge participants or to walk laps around the oval in the Relay for Roy and buy merchandise as pictured.”

Wendy continued, “We have good registration numbers so far, with a few already signed up. There’s a bit of traction about it now and there’s plenty of talk about it around town of people who are going to do it, but we will see the biggest in- flux in the last couple of weeks. Merchandise is very popular and will sell out quickly.”

“We would like to extend our thanks to the community as everyone we have approached to help with something, be it from a major sponsor to some- one who is providing sun- screen, they have all said yes and they are all donating. There has been massive support in the way of donations and sponsorships.”

Julian McAlister, Dylan McAlister and Sebastian Silk modelling the Roy merch.

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