Reading and Wycombe Unite for 24-Hour CPR Marathon
Reading and Wycombe Wanderers will go head to head later this month – but before a ball is kicked, they are teaming up for a very different kind of challenge.
Both clubs are backing South Central Ambulance Service’s charity CPR-A-THON, a relentless 24-hour test of stamina and solidarity that will unfold at their respective grounds in the days leading up to their League One clash.
The concept is brutally simple. Teams of up to 10 people line up around a CPR manikin. One person steps forward, delivers 30 chest compressions, then hands over. Then another 30. Then another. The cycle continues, non-stop, for an entire day and night.
The clock starts at 10:00 on 24 September and doesn’t stop until 10:00 on 25 September. Less than 48 hours later, at 15:00 on 26 September, the Royals and the Chairboys will meet at Adams Park with league points on the line.
Before that, the focus is on something far more important.
Each participant is asked to raise at least £150, with a target of £1,500 for a full team of 10. The money goes to the South Central Ambulance Service charity, but the organisers want more than donations – they want confidence, knowledge and a community ready to act when it matters most.
Sarah Callaghan, the charity’s volunteer manager, made the aim clear. This is designed to “bring communities together”, not just to fill a fundraising totaliser. She stressed that it is about giving people the belief to step in when someone suffers a cardiac arrest, learning a skill and repeating it until it becomes instinct.
“Every compression counts,” she said, underlining that the people taking part will be practising something that could one day save the life of a colleague, a friend or a loved one.
The clubs have thrown their weight behind the idea.
Neil Peters, managing director at Reading FC, cut through the usual football tribalism. There might be rivalry when the whistle blows, he said, but on this issue Reading and Wycombe “are firmly on the same team”.
At Adams Park, Wycombe are pushing the message hard. Head of media Matt Cecil urged local businesses and Chairboys supporters to form teams, come down to the stadium and take on a challenge that does two things at once: raise money for a vital local charity and equip people with skills that could keep someone alive.
For one day in September, the most important pressure at Adams Park and the Select Car Leasing Stadium won’t be on the ball. It will be on a CPR manikin’s chest – and it might just change what happens the next time real life is on the line.
