APRIL

IN APRIL, there were celebrations of the Royal Air Force as Basingstoke marked the centenary of the flying force.

The Central Band of the RAF Regiment led a ceremonial parade on Thursday, 5 April, featuring the standards of the three RAF Odiham squadrons, Royal Air Force Odiham officers, service veterans and Air Training Corps cadets, marching from the town centre to the War Memorial, outside the Civic Offices in London Road.

At the stroke of 11am, a single Chinook from RAF Odiham flew over the parade and distinguished guests, marking the beginning of the ceremony. A short service was conducted at the war memorial with readings from Group Captain Turner, station commander at RAF Odiham, the Royal Air Forces Association and the RAF Cadets.

One of the large events that took place in April was the launch of the Oscar’s Heroes campaign, which was a bid to help a two-year-old boy.

Zoe and Jason Jacob received the news that all parents dread on February 12 when their son Oscar was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The family urged people to sign up to be bone marrow donors, a process which could help save their two-year-old son.

The Gazette joined in the campaign to help Oscar find a bone marrow donor, featuring him on the front page, and encouraging people to sign up to become donors.

There was also sad news in April after the death of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council councillor for Buckskin, Cllr Nigel Pierce, on April 14.

Cllr Pierce was involved with local churches and charities, he recently chaired the all churches group in Basingstoke and worked as trustee for the Camrose Centre, supporting people at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping. He was chair of the Haymarket Theatre Trust and set up a bursary scheme for young people wanting to train professionally in the arts.

As a member of the Basingstoke Labour Group, Cllr Pierce was elected as Buckskin ward councillor in 2014.

His fellow Labour colleague and close friend, Cllr Paul Harvey, said he had an incredible ability to make people laugh.

Cllr Harvey said: “He really connected to people on a personal level. You weren’t talking to a councillor, you were talking to Nigel and Nigel connected with you.

“He was my friend and he will be dearly missed.”

Leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Clive Sanders said: “Nigel was a larger than life character in more ways than one.

“Above all he was someone who was good fun to be with, a good companion who made life better just by being there.”

Thousands of people pounded the pavement for a host of good causes in the London Marathon on April 22.

The Gazette received more than 30 photos of runners, who battled through the 24C weather with over 40,000 other runners.

MAY

MAY saw Basingstoke appear in a new light- in a videogame.

The idea came to one of the creators after having worked in Basingstoke. The team are a group of four enthusiasts who are not necessarily full-time game developers. Puppygames director, Caspian Prince, said: “About 10 years ago I found myself working in Basingstoke.

“Back then we made a computer game called Revenge of the Titans, which sees the Earth being attacked by evil monsters from Titan etc.

“I thought it was amusing at the time that the first place they attacked on the world was Basingstoke.”

Also honoured in May were the ‘healthcare heroes’ of Basingstoke, who were nominated for the NHS70 Parliamentary Awards by Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.

They held an event at the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council offices to honour them and announce their nominations. The awards were part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the NHS.

Basingstoke’s Maria Miller MP presented her nominees with a certificate on Tuesday, May 8.

Mrs Miller said: “I am delighted to put forward some outstanding nominations, including the contribution of those not just in the Basingstoke area, but across the whole country.

“The NHS has so many services, and we can use these awards to highlight the fantastic services of those that might be slightly more hidden, like the school nurses. This is a great opportunity to learn more about these services, and there were so many nominations.”

May also saw the launch of a heart-warming new scheme for children completing their cancer treatment at Basingstoke hospital.

Children get to ring a bell at the end of their treatment to ring in the next chapter of their life.

Six-year-old Tyler was the first patient to ring the newly-installed bell at Basingstoke hospital after undergoing nearly three-and-a-half years of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a type of blood cancer.

His mum, Carrie, said: “Hearing that your child has cancer are the words that every parent fears the most.

“It’s been a really long journey, and it hasn’t quite sunk in that Tyler has finished his treatment, but we’re really happy to hear that bell ring.

“He’s such a strong little boy and I am so proud of him.

“I am really looking forward to watching him experience life in the same way his friends do, being able to play and enjoy being a normal six-year-old.”

The St Michael’s Hospice Basingstoke Run in April smashed records. The event, which took place on Wednesday, 16 April, had a record 887 runners registered and on the night 343 runners completed a 10km run and 458 completed a 5km alternative.

To date, the event has raised more than £16,000 and once all sponsorship comes in, the hospice hopes to be close to its target of £34,000.

JUNE

STARTING off June was a right royal reward for a Basingstoke-based charity.

Inspero, based in Old Worting Road, was one of the 250 voluntary groups that were given a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service this year, the highest award for volunteer groups.

The charity, which promotes healthy eating and living in young people through food growing, baking and cooking programmes, was announced as one of the winners on the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, on June 2.

Catherine Waters-Clark, the founder and chief executive of Inspero, said: “It’s just absolutely amazing that we won, we are so thrilled.

“We are a small charity, but we help more than 600 young people, and it is wonderful to be recognised.

“We have only been going for six years, which is a relatively short period of time to be around, compared to some of the other charities who won.”

June gave further reasons to celebrate the borough and the people that live within, with the 15th Place To Be Proud Of Awards on June 6.

Felicity Edwards, managing director at Destination Basingstoke, said: “Once again we are amazed and humbled by the incredible number and range of nominations from across the community – they truly demonstrate that Basingstoke is a place we can be very proud of, the judges had a tremendously difficult job this year.”

This year also saw the introduction of The Gazette-backed Volunteer of the Year award, won by Inspero volunteer Tasharna Stapleton.

Tasharna said: “I’m really happy to get the award, I didn’t expect it at all. I was really nervous, but I was happy to see everyone cheering for me.

“Along with my work at Inspero, I’ve been working at Iceland, and as a nursery chef as well as completing my course at BCoT. Although I have since dropped the job at Iceland, I will keep helping at Inspero.”

The event was held at the Haymarket, compered by ‘Dave the Rower’, and organised by Destination Basingstoke.

Thousands of women descended on Down Grange to get muddy and raise money to fight cancer.

On June 16, over 3,000 women took part in the Cancer Research UK Pretty Muddy and Race for Life events.

The runners took part in either the 5km, 10km, or Pretty Muddy events, with all the money going to charity. The event raised approximately over £150,000.

Fiona Miller, Cancer Research UK’s Basingstoke events manager, said: “Lifesaving research is being funded right now thanks to people like the women of Basingstoke who join the fight at Race for Life.

“We’d like to thank everyone who took part in the event last weekend.”

That was the review of the first half of the year, from January to June. See next week’s edition for the last half of the year, from July to December.