AMANDA KAYES UMPIRED A 12 HOUR TENNISATHON MATCH –
THE LONGEST IN HISTORY!!
On 7th July 2016, Amanda Kayes wrote,
This Saturday I am umpiring a 12 hour continuous tennis match in order to beat the longest ever recorded tennis match record (Mahut v Isner) of just over 11 hours! I am being assisted by the wonderful kids and adult members of Knaresborough King James’s Tennis Club who are playing in 1 hour rotations whilst also trying to raise money. I can’t sit still for 10 minutes so 12 hours will kill me but I will do it in order to raise money for the wonderful charity Invest in ME.
Why this charity?
Well in 2002, my brother, Paul Kayes, was struck down with M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) following a virus. He was very fit, active, had a good job, a loving wife and two children, yet this illness showed no mercy as it gripped his body and as a result, for the last 13 years he has become virtually housebound and most of the time is confined to his bed. His only hope is that a cure for ME is found.
Invest in ME is run on an entirely voluntary basis by sufferers and parents of children suffering from M.E. Every penny they receive goes towards finding the cause and cure for this horrible illness whilst also trying to educate health care organisations and the public. Their most recent push is to raise funds for Biomedical Research into ME and have already laid foundations for a UK Centre of Excellence for ME Research. We want to help them take a step closer to reaching their goal, so that one day soon, a cure can be found to help my brother, and other sufferers, to get their lives back. We also want people to understand more about M.E. so its sufferers don’t feel so misjudged.
Looking forward to the big match on Saturday and raising as much money as possible for this amazing charity! 12 hours of sitting still can’t be worse than 14 hours of climbing up and down the summit of Kilimanjaro in the snow whilst throwing my guts up!!! But can we beat the record for the number of games played??? I think we can!!! Please read my story on JustGiving and if you could spare a few pounds to sponsor me I’d be so grateful.
UPDATE 9th July 2016: Amanda Kayes wrote….
“We did it!!! 12 hours of a continuous singles match and 8 hours of a doubles match, beating both records for the longest match and also the number of games played (we played 220 games in the singles match, beating the record of 183 games, and 133 games of doubles beating the record of 91 games)!!! We got pretty soaked but the kids and adults taking part were not phased by the puddles! Amazingly, on the stroke of 12 hours, the score between team Mahut and team Isner was exactly 110 games to 110, so a draw overall! So far we’ve raised £635.50!!” Huge thanks to Amanda and her record-breaking tennis superstars – justgiving.com/fundraising/AMANDAKAYES
