NW Air Ambulance Hallowe’en Ceilidh

It was all Greta’s idea. And Bill’s.

The original plan was to try to give something back to the NHS for all the hard work and sacrifices made during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately that was going to be an administrative nightmare, so…. 

They came up with A Plan to raise funds for the North West Air Ambulance, a service that relies totally on charitable subscriptions in order to operate. They get no government support.

Now flying helicopters around isn’t cheap, and if our caring Conservative government can’t be mithered to finance this vital emergency service, then we’d try to do our bit.

New Mills Town Hall was hired, the Hopgoblin Big Band all signed-up, and the publicity campaign began: FaceBook, direct emails, word of mouth, knocking on doors, posters in New Mills businesses, fly-posting (tsk), and mithering the blazes out of everyone we came across all, played their part.

It seemed to have worked: the hall was filled on the night, nearly everyone was in fancy dress, and the band were on fire. It was damned hard work, but well worth the effort.

You helped raise:

£1000

from ticket sales, donations, and a raffle.

Pretty good eh? 

So thanks to the good folk of New Mills and those from (much) further afield who came along and bopped to the band – we’re all extremely grateful for your support.  

Oh, and we enjoyed ourselves too!

Photos from the evening are here.

Our next public ceilidh will be on New Year’s Eve, at the Morley Green Club, Wilmslow SK9 5NT. Details will follow shortly.

Christmas 2017

At the risk of upsetting folk - something I seem to do with consummate ease (it's a talent), I won't be doing the Christmas card thingy.

Instead I've decided to donate a lump of dosh to the Manchester charity: The Booth Centre http://www.boothcentre.org.uk

There are too many disadvantaged folk out there who are REALLY struggling and our 'caring' government clearly don't give a damn, it's just not right.

Anyroadup, I just wanted to do a little something to help and I hope my donation helps.

Have a lovely Christmas folks!

21st January 2017, Fundraising for Syria Relief

Marmalade in action, raising funds for Syria Relief - we helped raise around £2000 last night, playing a ceilidh at St Peter’s Assembly Rooms in Hale.

 

The event was very well supported, in fact it was a sell-out.

Photograph by Brian, our very excellent caller for the evening.

Get yer kit off….!

….or put your hand in your pocket.

My mate Mike is dropping his drawers and risking freezing his wotsits off in a damned good cause – MIND.

MIND’s mission is to “provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. We campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.”

The NHS regards the Mental Health Service as very much a poor relation, it’s a Cinderella service.

Fortunately the Mental Health professionals working in the NHS are just that, very professional. And devoted to their work. They get the urine extracted from them with abandon.

It’s a bloody shame that they get shat on from a great height when it comes to funding, staffing levels and so on. Oh, and the amount of paperwork that CPNs (Community Psychiatric Nurses – the ones at the sharp end) have to deal with is just disgraceful.

These dedicated folks are working their nuts off (the ones that have nuts) trying to care for the mental health of their sometimes suicidal patients….and then have hours of paperwork to complete – very often in their own, unpaid time. And they don’t get paid that much.

Believe me, I know these things.

You may think that I feel more than a little strongly about this. You would be quite right.

Soooooo…..At sunrise on Sunday 22nd September hundreds of people will take on a mass skinny dip at Druridge Bay in Northumberland. This event isn’t about looking good. It’s about taking a risk, celebrating our unique bodies, being close to nature, raising money for The National Trust and Mind, and maybe even breaking a world record!

Now I’m not particularly mithered about providing extra funding for the NT – I pay them enough in membership fees, but I’m keen to support MIND….although I draw the line at flashing my rude bits around in the North Sea.

So go and visit Mike’s blog and see what the daft bugger gets up to. If you feel you can, please donate a little….or a lot. And if you can, select ‘Gift Aid’, it doesn’t cost you anything more but it increases the amount the charity gets from your donation.

You can donate here.

The photo up top isn’t Mike and his mates by the way, it an image I found at http://assets5.tribesports.com