Lakes Road Club 3 Lakes Summer Tour

This summer Ulverston Victoria High School teacher Stuart Emms, and a few friends from Lakes Road Club, are cycling from Lake Windermere (the biggest lake in England) to Lake Garda (the biggest lake in Italy). On the way, just for good measure, the cyclists intend to call in at the biggest lake in Germany - Bodensee. The group will set off on 23rd July 2011.

Why would he do this you ask? To support your local Hospice and you can help. You can support St Mary's Hospice by guessing the kilometres the group will ride in total from Windermere to Lake Garda. It is only £1 per guess and you can have as many guesses as you like. There is a £100 cash prize for the person who guesses correctly, failing that the nearest guess. In the event of a tie the winner will be drawn from a 'hat'.

You can enter by filling in your guess, name and a contact number at:
- Ulverston Victoria High School Reception
- St Mary's Hospice Shops: Ulverston, Dalton, Barrow & Grange
- The Orangery Cafe, St Mary's Hospice
- Top Mark, Greengate Street, Barrow in Furness
- DC Cycles, Upper Brook Street, Ulverston
- Contact Mr Emms at Ulverston Victoria High School

All proceeds will go to St Mary's Hospice.

Furness Building Society cooks up a delicious idea to support St Mary’s Hospice

Furness Building Society staff in Ulverston are putting on their aprons and rolling up their sleeves to support St Mary’s Hospice. The team will be baking sunflower-themed cupcakes to give away to customers in a drive to support the work of the hospice and promote the St Mary’s Affinity Account, which has raised more than £840,000 for the hospice since it was launched.

In preparation for the’ big bake the Ulverston branch staff will be attending a master class in how to make the best cupcakes run by catering students at Ulverston Victoria High School.

‘Sunflower Week’ at the branch starts on Monday June 27th and will run through to Ulverston Carnival on Saturday 2nd July, when the building society staff will be swapping their aprons for collecting buckets to support St Mary’s who are the main charity for the carnival.

During the week the branch in New Market Street will host a display for St Mary’s Hospice (for which the sunflower is a signature emblem) and will be encouraging visitors to the branch to consider opening a St Mary’s Hospice Affinity Account which earns a payment from the Society’s own funds based on the total balances in all of the accounts. Savers also get a better return on their money because the interest is calculated on the total balance in all of the accounts, and so qualifies for a higher rate of return.

In addition, the Hospice will have on sale sunflower cupcakes during sunflower week in The Orangery Café. The cupcakes will be donated by Windy Ash Cupcakes in Ulverston who will be supplying cupcakes each day freshly baked to their own exclusive recipe.

Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager for the Hospice, said “We are delighted with the support from Furness Building Society. The Affinity Account is a major fund-raiser for the Hospice and the special sunflower week is the perfect build up to the Carnival. We are also extremely grateful to Windy Ash Cupcakes for supplying some of their own delicious cakes to help us raise additional funds in our Orangery Café.”

For further information about the Furness Building Society Affinity Account scheme visit: http://www.furnessbs.co.uk/savings/affinity/

Pictured: Bob Cheetham from Windy Ash Bakery with Zoe Guest from St Mary's, Furness Building Society staff show off their baking skills

Carol Klein sings praises of Holker Garden Festival

Holker Garden Festival was once again a sign that summer had arrived in South Cumbria.

Thousands of people made the most of Friday and Saturday’s glorious weather and flocked to the annual gardening festival. The three-day event, hosted by the Cavendish family and sponsored by the North-West Evening Mail, is a celebration of stunning show gardens, local food and produce, and traditional skills.

The glorious sunshine made it perfect ice cream weather for festival-goers who descended for the perfect blend of horticultural celebration and family fun. Tents such as Made in Cumbria showcased the best of local produce, while show gardens and stalls kept browsers busy. Entertainment in the arena, which included horse-riding show Stallions of Substance and Terrier Racing, delighted the crowds who perched on haystacks in the seating area.

And the festival’s biggest fan this year came in the form of celebrity guest, BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Carol Klein. Carol was also guest of honour at last year’s event. Her enthusiasm for the event was infectious as she greeted visitors, posed for pictures, marvelled at the displays and perused the stalls.

She said: “I had such a brilliant time last year I brought my husband this year, I felt that he should not miss out because it is marvellous.

“How do they organise this weather? It is a beautiful show and it deserves it, it is a very joyous sort of occasion.

“It was my first time last year and I was so delighted to be asked back again. It’s so friendly and completely laid-back."

Carol also attended an auction to raise funds for St Mary’s Hospice. Once again very kindly hosted by Lord & Lady Cavendish and this year once again led by experienced auctioneer Mr Henry Bowring. The auction was a great success and raised £1990 for the Hospice.

Over the weekend St Mary’s was delighted to raise an amazing £5928.16 in total, and a big thank you goes out to everybody who supported St Mary’s throughout the weekend, provided auction prizes and contributed to help us raise such a magnificent total. The volunteer time provided to support this event was greatly appreciated.

Charity Concert presented by Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Dalton Seventh-day Adventist Church held a concert on Saturday the 7th May. Singers from the Midlands, Manchester and Preston sang gospel songs to the appreciation and enjoyment of an audience of local people and many who had travelled in for the occasion.

A collection was taken and the proceeds, some £354 was collected and presented to St Mary's Hospice.

Hill of an effort to raise Hospice funds

Joining forces to raise much-needed cash for St Mary’s Hospice, the Lakes Road Club and Barrow Central Wheelers have organised a series of cycling hill-climb races.

The first of the four races took place on Thursday night, with more than 30 riders taking part in the 1.6-mile Grizebeck Hill challenge.

Spectators braved the gusting winds to watch the cyclists whizz past.

Howard Lindow, event organiser, said: “The two clubs had wanted to do hill-climb racing for some time and we thought we may as well raise some money for the hospice at the same time. We managed to raise £60 for the hospice on the night.

“The weather stayed fine and we had plenty of supporters both on the roadside and in helping set up the race.”

"We had a load of volunteers turn up to assist and personally I think there was a real buzz about the evening. So Thank you all for your assistance so far and roll on the next climb at Gamswell."

Topmark Cycles, DC Cycles, Gill Cycles, The Ulverston Brewing Company and the Stone Workshop have all provided prizes for the winning cyclists.

There will be four categories in each race – 15 to 18-year-old juniors, men, women and over 45s.

For a run-down of the hill-climb series of races, visit the website at www.lakesroadclub.org.uk/hillclimbreports.php

Martyn Uttley was present taking photographs of the rather ashen-coloured riders as they crested the hill, and he'll be making these available through his website with all profits going to St Mary's: www.martynuttleyphotography.co.uk

Charity Casino Night raises £1400!

On Saturday 15th January 2011, Steve and Diane Hogan hosted a charity casino night at The Strawberry Hotel, Barrow-in-Furness. The event, raised £1,400, which has been shared equally between St Mary’s Hospice and The David Cole Training Fund for Oncology Nurses at Furness General Hospital.

Steve and Diane said they were delighted with the number of people who attended the event and by the generosity of everyone who donated raffle prizes and gave up their time to support the evening.

Urswick Charity Concert raises £3685!

Motivated by the loss of two friends, Brian Butterfield and Jimmy Spooner, local villagers organised a special concert at the Coot on the Tarn, Great Urswick on Friday 6th May 2011. The objective of the concert was to raise money for St Mary`s Hospice in appreciation for the superb care they have provided to all of the residents of Urswick and surrounding areas over recent years.

The concert, which featured Barrow Male Voice Choir, Jessika Gillam (saxophonist), Jessi Conway and Christopher Faulkner, was compared by John Mario. The Concert, was a resounding success and raised an amazing £3685.00.

The Village Organisers Damian Gorman, George Elwood, Edward Woodend and Martin Lloyd would sincerely like to thank everyone who supported the Concert. Special thanks go to all the local businesses and individuals (who are too numerous to mention individually), for providing sponsorship, donations and sales outlets.

Zoe Guest from St Mary’s Hospice said “St Mary’s relies heavily on the support of the local community and we cannot thank the organisers of the charity concert enough for all their hard work. To raise such a fantastic amount of money for the Hospice is greatly appreciated.”