Colin Greenwood races the Blenheim Palace Triathlon for a neighbour's daughter

Colin Greenwood, Radiohead's bass player, raced the 10th Blenheim Palace Triathlon in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, on Saturday with Scarlett's Dragons, a team of 22 fathers who, the Oxford Mail reports, have raised more than £100,000 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. The course starts with a swim across the lake in the palace grounds before the cycle and the run. The hardest bit was the swimming. I'm a rubbish swimmer. I was tempted to ask for my own rescue kayak to follow me.¹

The team is named for Scarlett Clarkson, whose father Dan is one of the Dragons and Greenwood's neighbour in North Oxford. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia three years ago, aged six. Now nine, she has relapsed despite chemotherapy and faces two more years of treatment. Greenwood, 44, lined up at the start with the family. Before the race he spoke of watching Dan go through the stress of supporting her. His courage and Scarlett's sheer stubborn gumption, in the face of gruelling treatment, has been humbling to see.²

The band have backed causes before, he says, but he had never done anything like this himself. He announced it on Twitter in April, calling it a moment of madness, and raised money for the team by tweeting. To have raised so much money is really exciting. Radiohead fans have been fantastic and given so much.¹