Derwenter swims the Channel for charity

November is coming to an end, and with it a month of fundraising both in York and across the country largely characterised by ‘Movember’. In 2011 the ‘Movember’ campaign raised over £22 million to go towards men’s health programs at Prostate Cancer UK and The Institute of Cancer, the campaign largely taking the form of encouraging half the population to grow some (often questionable) moustaches. Ben Clynes, a third year Derwent student, has taken the opportunity of November being the month of fundraising to raise money for a slightly different cause.

Matt Stein, Derwenter and York Computer Science student had a lung transplant in March 2007 carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital after contracting a lung infection. Having lived his life more fully than many students, he sadly passed away a month ago, on 29th October having been at home since Christmas when his condition began to deteriorate. ‘At home’ may sound pretty quiet and yet Stein was active until the end, fishing and building model train sets. Clynes says that Stein “knew it was coming but kept living. He was always brave and it [his deterioration] never phased him which shows how strong he was”. An impressive strength when he knew that the average life-expectancy after a transplant was around five years.

However, Stein’s strength and energy has lived past him as Clynes, on a mission to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and raise awareness of the importance of organ donation, immediately set about swimming the equivalent length of the entire English Channel before the month of November was over. Clynes has now achieved this, and in doing so has raised £901 so far, with the figure rising all the time as the online donations page is still open. The money will now go towards equipment, facilities and research that can help people like Stein and their families in the future.

Clynes was a regular swimmer anyway and so didn’t expect it to be an impossible task, and yet even though there was pain and exhaustion (especially with the early mornings) it made it much easier he was doing it for a cause so close to his heart. For Clynes, thoughts of why he was doing this challenge put the difficulties into perspective, adding that “Matthew was always a very motivational person to be around”.

The more I hear about Stein, the more appropriate Clynes’ challenge of swimming miles every day around his many other commitments, notably to his degree and his work as Welfare Officer for Derwent seems as a tribute to him. Whilst it seems that he has not had long to achieve much, Steins has nonetheless fitted more than many of us will do even before we have had a whole three years at York. He has cycled from London to Paris to raise money for Great Ormond Street himself, designed an iPhone app, played a part in the production of ‘Hawk-Eye’, a computer based system that can be used to track the ball in many sports, and even found time to write for Vision. On top of this, despite using transplanted lungs, he possessed a talent for badminton constantly beating the friends he played with.

Clynes’ swimming is not the first fundraising event inspired by Stein, and nor will it be the last. Adam Bennett, another friend of Steins, ran a ‘Donor Day’ in Spring term after Stein was hospitalised, in order to cheer him up. On this day many students were in D-Bar handing out leaflets and signing up to the Organ Donors Register on the spot. Derwent Chair Francesca Knight found it very encouraging how many people signed up adding that, “I hope that it’s something that will be continued every term and that everyone is reached and hears Matt’s story”. Knight, along with the Derwent Provost Rob Aitkin has already been in talks with Ben and more of Matt’s friends regarding more donor sign-ups, cake sales and a fundraising bar crawl. Whilst no dates have been finalised, Stein’s energy and determination is set to be continued.

You can still donate to Ben Clynes’ fundraising page: http://www.justgiving.com/benjaminclynes

Matthew Stein’s father also has a donations page at: http://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Stein1#

To find out more about becoming an organ donor visit: http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/