THE Bude community came out in force recently to support a fundraising fitness festival, which raised over £5,000.

The Magical Fitness Festival was organised to raise funds for Ben Bennett and Jake Watts, who both live in the town and who are both battling cancer.

Both Ben and Jake’s families attended the event to raise awareness of cancer.

Lisa Wood, who organised the festival, said: “Bude’s first ever Magical Fitness Festival was just magical. It was so amazing how everyone just pulled together to bring a totally different and unique event to Bude!

“When I first set out planning the event it was to raise money for my friends little boy Ben who has been diagnosed with a very rare childhood cancer, but then Natalie Bennett, Ben’s mum, was telling me about another local lad Jake Watts, 21, who also has cancer who lives in Bude.

“Ben had become close to Jake while going through treatment in Exeter hospital so I suggested that maybe we should split the money raised at the event between Ben and Jake. Natalie and her husband Sam thought this was such a brilliant thing to do.”

Many people helped with the event and altogether there were around 100 helpers! Some gave up their time to help on the day, others sold raffle prizes and helped with face painting, making arts and crafts in the wig wam, working on the bouncy castles and stewarding.

There were lots of fitness instructors with representatives from the boxing club, dance schools, Budehaven Community School PE Department, Bude RFC and Bude FC who all worked together to promote fitness and fun activities to local families.

Lisa, along with Ben’s older sisters — Maizie and Poppy Bennett aged seven and nine — kicked off the event in the massive tennis dome with kids Zumba followed by Maizie and Poppy doing their first ever solo dance performance.

Billy Wiz Magician then entertained the children with a fantastic hour-long magic show which was followed by him making some amazing balloon models for the children for the rest of the day.

There was also kids Bokwa, street dance and yoga sessions.

The skate and DJ area was very popular. Bude Airculture crew teamed up with DJ Jinx, Frank Cheshire set up a sound system, Budehaven School skate ramps were brought out of storage and together they ran a skate and scooter park with activities while the DJ played tunes throughout the day.

Lots of people donated cakes and crafts to sell on a stall. Budehaven school opened the canteen to serve hot food and Landsdown Dairy sold slushes and drinks. Both of these donated all the profit they made.

Budehaven Nursery ran the under fives room in the sports hall, while all the fitness instructors ran different adult fitness sessions around the school in the John Ward Hall, old gym and Sixth Form common room.

Adults could take part in as many classes as they wanted for £10. There were many to choose from — Beat Bounce, Bokwa, Zumba, Aerobics, Zumba Sentao, Metafit, kettlebells, Tae Kwon-Do, body conditioning, yoga and pilates.

It was very important to both Jake and Ben’s families that they were able to raise awareness of cancer to everyone at the event. Bude and Stratton Cancer Research, along with local paediatric nurse Nic Johns gave out leaflets and cancer promotion gifts.

Commentary throughout the day was provided by Bude’s local legend Peter ‘Vicko’ Vickery, which brought a smile to everyone’s faces!

The event finished with the raffle, fitness awards and theBude Beats Dance Crew performance of Children Know.

Lisa said: “I am so pleased with how the event went, it cost £5 per person to get into the magical fitness festival (under twos were free) and all main activities were included in that price. There was so much for children to do my son Jago said it was the best day he had ever had in Bude!

“I would love to be able to do this event again and carry on raising awareness of cancer and promoting fitness in our local community.

“We have all helped raise approximately £5,000-plus which will now be split between Jake and Ben. So thank you to everyone who helped raise this money this event would not of been able to happen without everyone pulling together.”

Natalie Bennett, Ben’s mum, said: “We would like to thank our friends, the local community and those from afar for all the love, help and support that has been given to our little boy Ben and our family during this horrendous time.

“We have been totally overwhelmed by all the various amazing events, the donations and gifts that we have received. Words cannot express how grateful we are to each and everyone. We feel so proud to be part of such an amazing community who are helping us with Ben’s journey home.”

Maggie Watts, Jake’s mum, said: “Jake and I would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming kindness and support through such a difficult time during Jake’s treatment. The Magical Fitness day was a brilliant success which was down to the wonderful people who organised and helped — far too many to mention. Lisa Wood has been an inspiration throughout. A huge part of the day for us both was to actually raise awareness of cancer and hope that this has been achieved. The community of Bude and surrounding areas have shown such an outstanding generosity to us and we are truly grateful.”