The event was born as an idea back in early 2012 when Ian's sister told him the terrible news that she had terminal breast cancer. Ian was fishing at the time with a friend, and that's when the idea came to him to try and combine the fishing he loved with somehow raising money for Cancer Research UK and Cast 4 Life was born.
Ian & Vicki held their first match later that year at a local fishery in Ampfield called FLE, it comprised of just 6 anglers including Ian, his 2 brothers and 3 friends. Ian found it was great fun to do so decided to make it a regular yearly match.
Ian & Vicki held their next match the following year in 2013 and again it was a great success , this is the year the raffle made its 1st appearance and has been a regular thing since. Ian after taking part and marshalling that match decided he needed a break and so there was no match in 2014.Then in late 2014 Ian decided that he would like to do the match again in 2015 and this was the first year we held the match as a pairs match, and even though there was only a few anglers due to last minute pull outs everybody still had a good time and it was a fairly good success.
For 2016 the match got bigger and so a bigger venue was called upon and we held it at Broadlands Lakes in Calmore. It was one of the most successful years and had the highest number of anglers to take part, 2016 is also the year the Bait pool and the auction made their appearances and have since been popular. However it was in 2016 that Ian & Vicki decided that the match would now only happen every other year as both were working full time and trying to organise the match it was too much for them to do yearly.
The next match was held in 2018 this time at East Lake on the Chichester Lakeside Complex. This was the biggest year to date and they smashed their total raised by nearly £2000. They not only had 15 pairs (30 anglers)but also raised £5000. The 2020 match was also due to be held at Chichester but because of the unprecedented Covid-19 it was postponed until 2021, but even with the pandemic still having an effect we raised a total of over £4000 some of which was donated to the Countess Mountbatten Hospice.
The 2022 match was held at Willow Park Fishery in Aldershot, unfortunately we didn't hit the £10,000 target, which isn't surprising considering the cost of living crisis at the moment. However we raised around £5331.73. Still a good amount. Roll on 2024.
