Competitors in this year’s OSCAR dragon boat race in London’s Docklands — to be held later in the summer — will have inspiration to pull on their paddles harder than ever before.
Their efforts will be raising money to support the work of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, where young Billy Bergsland is being treated for an aggressive type of blood cancer.
Billy is the son of Cassandra and Christopher Bergsland, commercial director of Golar LNG, and a former LNG broker with Affinity Shipping.
The sixth annual OSCAR dragon boat race will be held on Friday 13 September at the end of London International Shipping Week. Already 27 teams have signed up, with more welcome.
Organisers hope the event will lift the total raised by the OSCAR charity since it was launched in 2011 to more than £2m ($2.5m), with all of it going to help fund research into new lifesaving medical techniques at the world-renowned institution.
Golar LNG will have its own team competing at the event, along with two further teams of friends and supporters from the LNG market.
Billy’s father, Christopher, said: “We are very happy to have received so much kind support from our friends in the LNG business and are looking forward with excitement to seeing them at the event.”
Billy has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which affects around 650 people in the UK each year, half of them children, according to the National Health Service. Billy is understood to be responding to treatment.
OSCAR is named after Oscar Parry, the son of Phil Parry, who is the founder of maritime people experts Spinnaker.
Oscar received lifesaving care at Great Ormond Street after contracting two forms of cancer at the age of eight. Twelve years later, he is 20 and working full time as a chef in London livery halls.
“The OSCAR Campaign proves how generous and big-hearted shipping people are,” Phil Parry said.
“I’m proud to be a part of this industry and a part of Maritime London. We’ve already raised £1.85m to fund blood and bone-marrow transplant research and treatments.
“London International Shipping Week 2019 should tip that over £2m. With our [shipping’s] support, lives are being saved around the world by new treatments that weren’t possible a few years ago.”
A host of well-known names have already signed up to take part in the race: Spinnaker Global, Beazley, Borealis Maritime, Hill Dickinson, Swire Bulk, BDO, the Liberian Registry, last year’s race winners C Solutions, AMNomikos, North P&I, Britannia P&I, CJC Law, Shipowners P&I, Thomas Miller, Union Maritime, Lloyd's Register, Baltic Exchange, Lomar Shipping, Ince & Co, IG Group one and two, Golar LNG plus two teams from the LNG sector, Mortgage Concierge, Corner Club, and MSC Cruises & Cruise Management.
TradeWinds has been a supporter of OSCAR since its launch, with Editor-in-Chief Julian Bray part of its committee.
