Norwich church hosts ping pong marathon
A Norfolk man will be playing a 24 hour ping pong marathon in a Norwich church this weekend to recruit bone marrow donors for the Anthony Nolan Trust.
James Metsoja, aged 28, decided to represent the Anthony Nolan Trust after seeing his friend, Andrew McFadyen, get life saving treatment including a bone marrow transplant for the very rare blood cancer, Aplastic Anaemia.
Both and Andrew and James attended Norwich School of Art and chose nearby St George's Church as the venue for the event. Andrew is a member of the St George's congregation and so approached the churchwardens with the idea of using the church as a playing space.
Andrew says, "The actual idea for the pingpongathon was all James', inspired as he was to do something to help the Anthony Nolan Trust, which provided me with a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Our primary focus during the event is to recruit people (16 - 40 yrs) to sign up for the Anthony Nolan Trust bone marrow donor register, in order that they might have the chance to help save someone else's life one day."
 James said, "I love playing ping-pong, and think this is a great way to raise awareness for the Anthony Nolan Trust; I am hoping to get at least 100 people to sign up to the bone marrow donor register as well as raise money for this amazing charity."
Andrew added, "A lot of people consider bone marrow donation to be difficult and painful, which is not the case any more."
James will take on all challengers over the 24 hour Pingpongathon, which will be held in St. George's Church, Colgate, Norwich and will begin at 11 am, Sunday 13th February and will run until 11 am on 14th February.
James is relying on the support of people to come and play a game or cheer him on. Anyone of any age and ability is welcome at all hours!
James will attend the 09:30 service at St George's prior to the event starting and the congregation will be praying for him and for the success of the event during this service.
Anthony Nolan is an independent charity and relies on public donations to continue saving lives. www.anthonynolan.org
You can sponsor James online: www.justgiving.com/pingpongathon
Pictured: James Metsoja (left) and Andrew McFadyen (right)
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