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.