BBQ on the Green

Raising funds for research into Cancer treatment and early diagnosis.

To date BBQ on the Green has raised over £20,000 for cancer charities.

BBQ on the Green is an annual cancer charity fundraiser started in 2015. The event was inspired and came about when a lifelong friend to Louise Scrivener, Mandy Ross-Read, a genuinely lovely lady was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer. This is a much rarer type and continues to be notoriously difficult to treat.

Also, that year Brown Dog Charity donated £38,000 to buy a piece of equipment to aid Breast Cancer diagnosis at the Dorset Breast Screening Unit, so one of our team took part in their annual challenge. BBQ on the Green then donated half of 2015’s proceeds to Brown Dog

When friends and family have life threatening illness it hits home that this is happening to many of us. We feel inspired to want to try and find a way to make it better somehow.

One of the options seems to be to try and get money into the treatments and research, either to directly help individuals, or to the medical researchers that are coming up with new and effective treatments.

It was just a simple idea at first with the involvement of a good bunch of people in the community to get a few friends and neighbours to come out, enjoy an evening and donate some money for some BBQ food and a drink or two.

That first year was a very cobbled together affair with food cooked on a BBQ and a bunch of borrowed gazebos and staging for a band to perform from. The turn-out was great and much better than we expected. Around 200 people came to support the event and we raised approximately £2,000.

Money was donated to Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research and to Brown Dog Cancer Charity, who “raise money to purchase vital equipment or infrastructure to improve the detection or treatment of cancer (and improve patient care) to subsequently save or extend life”.

The event went so well, everyone said you must do it again. We thought we have a great community here and it worked, so why not! Plus, having done it once we thought we might be able to do it a bit better next time.

In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 the event grew and grew with more stalls, more bands and involvement from some more brilliant people and local businesses.

To date BBQ on the Green has raised over £20,000 for cancer charities.

Sadly, one our event team, another very popular and much-loved local man Kevin Boon was diagnosed with Metastatic Prostate Cancer in 2017, so we added Prostate Cancer treatment and research to our fundraising efforts.

Mandy Ross-Read & Kevin Boon have both died from their cancers sadly. They both loved the event and it’s in their honour and to help others that our event continues this year with another fine array of bands, food stalls and other entertainment.

We have been proud to give many thousands of pounds to Guys & St Thomas’ Triple Negative Breast Cancer research and to Prostate Cancer UK. We have also been very pleased to donate funds to Forest Holme Hospice in Poole who looked after both Mandy and Kevin with amazing care and dignity.

BBQ on the Green was proud to be back in 2022 when restrictions had finally been lifted. It was the biggest and best yet so please join us for a good cause and for an exciting day on

13^th May 2023!