Last year I grew a 150kg giant pumpkin while undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. This year, following an autologous stem cell transplant at The Royal Marsden (also known as a bone marrow transplant), I decided to try something different. Meet Moby the Marrow, who weighed 120lbs when he was harvested in late August and went on to raise £195 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity through a guess-the-weight competition at Kingfisher Farm Shop in Abinger Hammer.
From giant pumpkin to giant marrow
Some readers may remember Abdul, the giant pumpkin I grew during the summer of 2025. I named him after my haematology consultant at East Surrey Hospital and somehow managed to keep him growing while having chemotherapy. With help from my family, fellow allotment holders, a local farmer, a horseman and a borrowed truck from Kendall Cars, Abdul eventually made his way to Tulleys Farm in West Sussex.
That adventure helped raise £1,125 for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Charity Cancer Fund, supporting the chemotherapy services at East Surrey Hospital where I had been treated. This year they were able to buy an additional cold cap machine.
Growing a giant pumpkin is never a particularly sensible undertaking. Growing one during cancer treatment probably reduced the sense involved even further. But it gave me something positive to concentrate on during a fairly grim period of my life. After further chemotherapy, I underwent high-dose treatment and an autologous stem cell transplant at The Royal Marsden in Sutton in December 2025.
By the time the 2026 growing season arrived in the spring, I was recovering well enough to contemplate another giant vegetable. I did not feel quite ready to commit hundreds of square feet of ground to another enormous pumpkin plant, so I decided to grow a giant marrow instead.
This was, of course, my idea of scaling things down.
Growing Moby Dick
The seed came from a 233.7lb marrow grown by giant-marrow grower Mark Baggs (Baggs the winner again last week at Malvern’s 2026 Autumn Show – see bottom) and as my marrow took on its large size, I named it Moby Dick.
I originally grew it for the Westcott Autumn Flower Show. As chairman of Westcott Gardeners’ Club, I realise that entering a 100lb-plus marrow in my own village show might look slightly excessive. Thankfully, Moby justified the effort by winning Best in Section (Vegetables).
He weighed 120lbs shortly after harvest – officially Surrey’s biggest ever marrow. That made him considerably heavier than any marrow I had grown previously and also presented the usual problem of how to move a squash that weighs about as much as a small person. The answer? An adult’s sledge.
Following the flower show, Kingfisher Farm Shop in Abinger kindly agreed to display him and host a guess-the-weight competition in aid of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
Customers paid £2 to enter, writing their name, telephone number and estimated weight on a folded note. The farm shop also provided a £50 prize for the closest guess.
The official weigh-in
Moby remained on display at the farm shop for around two weeks before the official competition weigh-in on 20 September. By then his weight had reduced to 107.3lb, or 48.7kg. That was more than 12lbs below his original harvest weight, but this was entirely understandable. Marrows contain a great deal of water and continue losing moisture after harvest, particularly when sitting on display in the sun.
The competition had always made clear that the result would be based on Moby’s weight on 20 September, so 107.3lb became his official competition weight.
Between the individual guesses and the farm shop’s support, Moby raised £195 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity (though owner Marion kindly sent £200 to Royal Marsden).
Thank you to everyone who entered and to Kingfisher Farm Shop for hosting the competition. It was intended as a bit of local fun, but £200 is a meaningful amount of money and a way for me to thank the hospital that gave me another chance.
The marrow that beat Harrogate without going there
Moby had originally been destined for the giant-vegetable competition at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show.
Unfortunately, giant marrows do not store anything like as well as giant pumpkins. He therefore missed Harrogate, which was disappointing until I discovered that the winning marrow there weighed 36.43kg, or just over 80lbs.
Even after losing more than 12lbs through evaporation, Moby’s official weight of 107.3lb was still almost 27lb heavier. I shall try not to sound too smug about that.
The Harrogate winner was grown by Graham Haswell and was still an excellent marrow. Nevertheless, it is pleasing to know that Moby could have been competitive at one of the country’s best-known giant-vegetable shows.
Part of my recovery
Last year I did not know whether I would be well enough to see the giant-pumpkin season through. I was growing Abdul between hospital appointments, scans and chemotherapy sessions, knowing that a stem cell transplant was likely to follow. This year, Moby has felt like part of my recovery.
There is something wonderfully normal about worrying over watering, feeding, measurements and whether a marrow is growing quickly enough. After a couple of years dominated by cancer treatment, normal worries are rather welcome.
The story also resulted in another unexpected moment when BBC Radio Surrey telephoned and asked me to discuss Moby live on air. It seems that an enormous marrow remains capable of interrupting an otherwise ordinary day.
Moby spent his final few days outside our house, where neighbours could see him before I cut him open to harvest the seeds. Whether those seeds produce another giant marrow next year remains to be seen. I may have another attempt, although experience suggests that once I say “perhaps,” a large area of the allotment is already doomed.
Malvern’s Marrows
We really enjoyed the 2026 Autumn Show at Malvern last week, in particular the giant marrows. Moby would have come in around 5th place if he had gone at his full harvest weight. Still HALF (yes HALF!) what Mark Baggs entered (below right):
