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NFU coffee morning raises £500!

Furness Ladies National Farmers Union vice chairperson, Maureen Boyren presented a cheque for £500.00 to Kathy Graves, Quality Manager from St Mary’s Hospice on Tuesday 29th November. The amount being the proceeds from a coffee morning held on 27th October in the Coronation Hall, Ulverston. The group would like to thank everyone who supported the event, in any way, making it such a great success.

Mrs Boyren said “It is a pleasure to be able to support the excellent work done by the Hospice and thanks go to the staff and volunteers for the dedication they show in caring for people in the local community, not only the patients, but their extended family. The care given is second to none and reaches people in their homes as well as in the Hospice itself.”

'Life in Barrow' DVD sales boost Hospice funds

Ray Cassley, Hospice Fundraiser was delighted to be presented with a donation of £250 from Joe Wardman. Joe had made a DVD about life in Barrow with the help of Signal films and all the proceeds from the sale of his DVD were donated to St Mary’s.

Everyone at St Mary’s would like to thank Joe for raising funds for our charity. It is greatly appreciated

45th Keswick to Barrow brings in another amazing donation

The Keswick to Barrow Walk is a 40 mile sponsored stroll through some of the country’s finest landscapes. The route starts on the southern side of the Lake district town of Keswick and winds its way through some of the most beautiful scenery to Barrow in Furness.

The idea of walking from Keswick to Barrow originated in 1966 as a result of a statement made by the late US President, John F Kennedy to the effect that 'every American should be capable of walking 50 miles a day'. At this time the first Polaris Submarine - HMS Resolution was being built at the shipyard in Barrow and several American experts were resident in the area assisting with the project.

With the idea now conceived, plans were soon under way to organise a walk and build relationships with the crew of the submarine and the workers at the then ‘Vickers’ shipyard. The initiative was taken by the Installation Manager (Submarines) to formally challenge the Commanding Officer of HMS Resolution to form a team and walk from Keswick to Barrow (approx 50 miles) on 1st April 1967.

The Commercial Department of Vickers heard of this challenge and joined in the walk making it a three cornered contest with the crew from HMS Resolution. The Crew of HMS Resolution finally won the contest in face of severe competition. The distance of the walk was later reduced by moving the start out of Keswick to prevent any problems which might arise through congestion on the difficult entry to the town. The more convenient start point of Rough How Bridge was established with a final measured distance of approximately 40 miles.

This year the walk took place for the 45th time and over £235000 was raised from the event, which took place in May. On Tuesday 29th November all funds were given away to hundreds of charities at a presentation evening, which took place at the Forum 28 in Barrow. Since the walk started over 2 million pounds has been raised. This year St Mary’s was awarded £13190 with the option of claiming an additional £2000 in Gift aid. The Hospice cannot thank the organiser’s and walkers enough for this wonderful contribution.

Freemasons support for Hospices

St Mary’s Hospice, Funding & Operations Manager, Zoe Guest receives a cheque for £2278.00 from the West Lancashire, Furness and South Lakeland group of Lodges and Chapters of the Freemasons. The grant is part of the Freemasons Grand Charity’s extensive support of Hospices in England and Wales. The donation was awarded to St Mary’s in support of their application made in August 2011.

Pictured: Tony Harrison, assistant provincial grand master, Zoe Gest and Rowley Saunders, the Furness Group Chairman.

The No.1 Jon Bon Jovi Tribute Act is coming to Dalton!

St Mary’s Hospice is proud to announce that the NO.1 Jon Bon Jovi Tribute Act - David Burrows will be performing at Dalton Cricket Club, Ulverston Road on Friday 9th December to raise funds for the charity.

David Burrows is a superb Jon Bon Jovi impersonator. He won Granada Television's 'Stars in Their Eyes' in 1997 and he has the looks & voice of the star. David is described as the UK's number one Bon Jovi tribute act!

St Mary’s Hospice hopes to bring the sounds of the outstanding rock band to Dalton. Tickets are selling fast, but there are still a few available at a charge of £10 to include a Hot Pot supper provided by Kitchen Wizard.

The event starts at 7.30pm, and will commence with a disco from DJ Billy

For further information call 01229 580305. Tickets can be purchased from St Mary’s Hospice or from the St Mary’s Charity Shops in Dalton or Barrow.

Ulverston Dickensian Festival

Blustery winds and pouring rain failed to dampen the spirits of the die-hard Dickensian Festival fans.

The thirteenth Dickensian Christmas Festival, took place in Ulverston on the 26th & 27th December. The festival is one of the most popular Dickensian Festival events in the country.

This year again thousands of people came along to wander around and savour the wonderful atmosphere of a traditional market town in the Dickensian era.

St Mary’s once again took part in the Christmas market and we are delighted to announce that we raised £1335.54 for the charity.

A huge thank you goes to all the volunteers who helped us during the weekend and braved the cold weather. We really appreciate your support.

Morrisons customers support St Mary’s Hospice

Morrisons stores raised more than £1.3 million for hospices across the UK during 2010when the supermarket’s national Charity of the Year was Help the Hospices, the leading charity supporting hospice care in the UK.

The Morrisons store in Barrow in Furness was twinned with St Mary’s hospice in Ulverston for 10 months, raising more than £6350.53 from collections, and events.

We were delighted when the team from the Barrow in Furness Morrisons store once again invited the fundraising team from St Mary’s to fundraise in their store from 21st – 27th November 2011.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of all customers and staff, We are very pleased to announce that we raised £1222.20 from our Christmas tombola and donations and sold £370 worth of Superdraw tickets. This is a fantastic achievement in the present economic climate and we are very grateful to everyone who supported us.

All money raised by the store through fundraising will directly fund hospice services for people with life-limiting and terminal illnesses from South Cumbria.

Santas Dash to raise cash for hospice!

St Mary’s Hospice second Santa Dash proved a hit on Saturday 26th November, as a flurry of red coats and white beards jogged through Ulverston. Local passers-by got quite a shock as a flurry of Santas, of all ages, braved the cold to raise money for the charity.

Setting off from Victoria High School at 1.30pm, men, women and children all got in the festive spirit as they headed down Springfield Road, joined by local MP, John Woodcock.

Everyone who entered the 1 mile run/walk got a free Santa Claus costume to keep and a certificate for completing the dash.

Graham Jones, 53, from Dalton, completed the dash with son Rob, 23 for a second year running, in memory of his sister-in-law, who died a couple of years ago. Graham and Rob finished in joint first place closely followed by John Woodcock in third. Graham said: “The dash was very enjoyable. It is certainly a different experience running in a Santa costume.”

Zoe Guest, fundraising and operations manager for St Mary’s Hospice, said: “It has been better than we thought it would be as the weather conditions were awful. Everyone seems to have had a really good time despite being very wet. We’ve had 34 entries this year and we would like to thank everyone who took part in the event and also volunteered to support us.”

Millom Fashion Show raises £923!

We were delighted that 100 people came to the Tin Chapel in Millom on Friday 25th November for our fashion show arranged by the volunteers from our Millom shop.

A host of volunteer models showcased examples of clothing available from the hospice shops, which were all available to purchase after the event. All the models strutted their stuff to help raise funds for St Mary’s.

Zoe Guest, fund-raising and operations manager said “£923.20 was raised for the hospice.”

“It was a wonderful evening and it was nice to see the event being so well supported by local people. We were trying to encourage people to shop at our charity shops and demonstrate how good recycled clothes can be. We wanted to show that you can pick up excellent bargains at the St Mary’s shops and we wanted to get away from the negative image that second hand clothes have.”

The volunteer team has worked so hard over the last few weeks to make the event special and we were over-whelmed with the amazing response on the night. We would once again like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped make the evening a success.

Sonja Foster raises £1432.21 at The 2011 Lakeland Trials

We would like to thank Sonja Foster for taking part in The Lakeland Trials Marathon Race in 2011. Through sponsorship Sonja raised an amazing £1432.21 for St Mary's Hospice.

Sonja would like to thank all of her neighbours, friends and everyone at The Park Leisure Centre in Barrow-in-Furness for kindly sponsoring her.

Pictured: Lorraine Irving, Fundraising Leader presenting Sonja Foster with her fundraising certificate.

TALENTED PERFORMERS CAN WIN CASH FOR CHARITIES

Charity supporters across the North West have the opportunity to step into the talent spotlight and win a share of more than £3000 for their chosen good cause in the Charity Challenge 2012 organised by Furness Building Society.

The competition invites performers and charity supporters to show their talent in a 60 second video clip. Full details of the competition and how to enter are on the Society website at www.furnessbs.co.uk/charitychallenge

A selection of videos will appear on the website and on the websites of media partners North West Evening Mail, Lancashire Evening Post and Bolton News. They will be assessed by a panel of judges to select 12 acts to perform live in the final at the Lancaster Grand Theatre on Saturday January 21 2012. Finalists will compete for prizes of £1,000 for first place, £750 for second place, and £500 for third place, with £100 for each of the other finalists so that all of the charities represented on stage will benefit.

The competition is open to individuals and groups and the talent can be anything from singing, dancing or playing an instrument to magic, comedy or juggling! But it has to be entertaining and fun.

All prize money will go to the worthy causes represented in the final, and the performers sending in videos have the fun of seeing themselves online, drawing attention to the work of their charity and perhaps representing it on stage in the final.

The simplest way to record a Charity Challenge video is on a mobile phone. Videos should be no more than 60 seconds long and can also be submitted in MP4 format.

Entrants simply complete the application form with name, age, contact number and details of the charity they are representing, and send in the video via the entry section on www.furnessbs.co.uk/charitychallenge.

Closing date for entries is Tuesday December 6th

Furness Building Society Chief Executive Rob Cairns explains: “The Charity Challenge got off to a fantastic start last year and we are delighted to be able to run the competition again this year. We want it to be an annual event.”

“The aim is to help make everyone more aware of the need to support charities in the current tough economic climate, but we also hope that people will enjoy taking part and have fun doing something for their chosen charity. Our affinity accounts work on the simple basis of ‘You Save, We Give’ and we are looking forward to handing over the cash to the winners at the Grand Final.”

Further details of the Charity Challenge can be found on the Society’s website www.furnessbs.co.uk/charitychallenge together with the rules of the competition and a full list of branches and agencies. There’s also information on how affinity accounts earn cash for charities.

Keswick to Barrow 2012

Heavy showers and sunny spells were the order of the day for the 45th Annual Keswick to Barrow Walk, but the forecast did not discourage some 2300 hardy walkers and runners that descended on Rough How Bridge to set a new record entry for the event (was 2295 in 2009). Once again there were participants from right across the UK including 20 Ministry of Defence teams, 20 BAE Systems Teams and over 50 non-Cumbrian teams. There were also 30 junior teams mainly from local schools that made up around 200 of the total competitors.

In 2010, £234,576 was raised from the event, and since the walk started nearly 2 million pounds has been raised. St Mary’s was awarded £14449 a record individual donation to a single charity in 2010 and has been invited to the awards ceremony once again in 2011.

The 46th Keswick to Barrow walk has been confirmed as taking place on Saturday May 12th with registration for team’s taking place online from 16th January.

St Mary's would like to put in a team for 2012. Would you be interested in taking part? If so please email the St Mary's Fundraising Team before the 31st December 2011:events@stmaryshospice.org.uk

A successful evening with Henry Olonga

We are delighted to announce that 40 people attended our evening with Henry Olonga on Friday 28th October 2011, at Ulverston Golf Club, Priory Road, Ulverston.
Guest Speaker for the evening former Zimbabwean test cricketer, Henry Olonga delighted the audience with his life story so far and his amazing singing voice.

Henry made his international debut in 1995, becoming the youngest player to represent Zimbabwe. He helped Zimbabwe to its first ever Test victory in that game. A right arm fast bowler, Olonga was the first black cricketer to play for Zimbabwe. Olonga achieved international recognition (along with team mate Andy Flower) in 2003 by wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe's government, led by Robert Mugabe. This act led to a warrant issued in Zimbabwe for Olonga's arrest on charges of treason (which carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe) and forced him to retire from international cricket and temporarily go into hiding.

Henry delighted the audience with songs such as bring him home and you raise me up in between answering their questions and telling the audience about his life so far.

The event raised £910 for St Mary’s and a huge thank you goes to Henry for giving up his time to do this event for our charity and to Frank Edwards from Elliot & Edwards for providing sponsorship.

Coffee with a Difference in Millom

The staff of St Mary’s Hospice, would like to thank the volunteer team from Millom shop so much for organizing and running a coffee with a difference afternoon on Friday 28th October at the Tin Chapel. We are delighted to announce that the team raised £496 from the event in 2 hours, which is a wonderful achievement.

The afternoon was a great success with everyone coming along from the Millom community to offer their support and we really appreciate all their help.

Voices for Hospices 2011!

Our Voices for Hospice event, sponsored by the Best of Barrow and Furness, raised the roof of the Lisdoonie Hotel in Abbey Road, Barrow on Thursday 27th October.

The event, first held in 2009, paired well-known people from the community with local entertainers to produce a musical extravaganza to raise money for St Mary’s.

Over 180 people packed into the hotel’s ballroom to watch a show, which raised £1,367for St Mary's.

The event was kicked off by compere Pete Murphy, who introduced the first pair – Barrow town centre and festivals manager Ann Taylforth and her pro partner, Danielle McCauley.

Watched by the judging panel of Billy Caldwell, Derek Brook and Helen Penny (who gave interesting commentary throughout the night) the crowd were treated to a bouncy rendition of "Build Me Up Buttercup".

Barrow AFC commercial manager Martin Lewis joined Dan Clark from Codejak, whilst the Hospice’s own Sue McGraw and Melissa Thompson sported matching outfits for the Steps song “One for Sorrow.”

The Evening Mail’s Rob Johnson took the role of the Edge, with flamboyant entertainer Pete Thompson playing Bono for a rendition of U2’s “With or Without You.” And the pint-sized news editor blew the crowd away with a powerful performance.

Dalton’s the Reverend Alan Mitchell joined veteran entertainer Dennis Hume on stage, and Barrow AFC legend Neil ‘the Doc’ Doherty and Beth Wilkes set their stall out as early favourites with a great version of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

After a short break when a stampede was avoided at the buffet, the music resumed as the pairs performed their second number of the evening.

CodeJak singer Dan Clarke looked more at ease singing Foo Fighters hit “The Pretender” with partner Martin Lewis donning a blonde wig! Sue McGraw and Melissa Thompson again went for a matching theme, with some sparkly headgear, as they belted out "Edge of Glory". And the crowd got more than they bargained for as Pete Thompson stripped to his boxers and gyrated alongside Rob Johnson during "Disco 2000". And they were also treated to a raunchy performance of “Cry Me a River” by Poole Townsend’s Martin Oates and Lisa Hart. The Bay’s Rochelle Berry joined local singer Lindsey for a stirring rendition of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” Janet Helm from Cumbria Fire and Rescue and Sarah Talbot ended the performance to rapturous applause from the increasingly enthusiastic audience.

However, it was the former AFC winger Doherty and vocalist Beth Wilkes who got the audience vote and snatched the trophy by one point.

An Evening with Henry Olonga

We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting an evening with Henry Olonga on Friday 28th October 2011, at Ulverston Golf Club, Priory Road, Ulverston.

Guest Speaker for the evening will be former Zimbabwean test cricketer, Henry Olonga. Henry made his international debut in 1995, becoming the youngest player to represent Zimbabwe. He helped Zimbabwe to its first ever Test victory in that game.

A right arm fast bowler, Olonga was the first black cricketer to play for Zimbabwe. Olonga achieved international recognition (along with team mate Andy Flower) in 2003 by wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe's government, led by Robert Mugabe. This act led to a warrant issued in Zimbabwe for Olonga's arrest on charges of treason (which carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe) and forced him to retire from international cricket and temporarily go into hiding.

Henry also has a superb voice and is an emerging tenor, recently releasing a CD entitled “Aurelia”. He has a foundation that lies in being afforded leading roles in productions such as the Gondoliers, Annie Get Your Gun, and Joseph and his Technicolor Dream-coat and in addition, to speaking about his time in test cricket, Olonga will also be singing for the audience on the 28th October.

Tickets for the event are available now and are priced at £10. The evening will commence at 7.30pm.

Henry will be bringing along signed copies of his book and CD to purchase.

For further information please contact St Mary’s Fundraising Team on 01229 580305 or email events@stmaryshospice.org.uk

A magical £329.60 is raised for St Mary's

A fabulous evening has had by all who attended the North West Society of Magicians annual stage competition at the Lisdoonie Hotel, Barrow on Wednesday 19th October. An audience of over 100 people were treated to some amazing tricks and illusions from the 8 performers who each performed for 10 minutes.

This year the event was held to raise funds for St Mary’s Hospice and we are delighted to announce the evening raised £329.60, which is an absolutely amazing achievement.

St Mary’s staff were delighted to attend the event and present the prizes to all the winners. This year the main award went to Terry and Michelle with Dave Simpson a close second. The comedy cup went to Richie Cottam.

Our thanks go to the Lisdoonie, and all the performers, and all who attended and made it a lovely event.

Ulverston Auction Mart raise £1457!

Zoe Guest and Lorraine Irving were delighted to be presented with a cheque for £1457.49 at Ulverston Auction Mart by Ian Walker on Tuesday 18th October. The funds had been raised for St Mary’s at the weekly car boot sales held at the auction mart arranged by the farmers and auction mart staff.

All the staff at St Mary’s really appreciate all the support shown to the charity by the auction mart and car booters who have raised funds for St Mary’s for many years. It is a fantastic achievement to raise such a large sum of money and we are really grateful for all the support.

Imperial School of Dance raise £600 for St Mary's

Zoe Guest, St Mary's Funding & Operations Manager was delighted to be presented with a cheque for £600 on Saturday 15th October by children from the Imperial School of Dance. The donation was raised at their annual show “Dance Krazy” performed by the pupils in December 2010. The show marked the 25th anniversary year for the dance school.

All the staff at St Mary’s really appreciate all the support shown to the charity by the dance school who have raised funds for St Mary’s for many years. It is a fantastic achievement to raise such a large sum of money and we are really grateful.