CONGRATULATIONS - Pop up shop breaks target
Volunteers at the BCUSG pop up cancer shop announced they beat their target raising £19,734 in the run up to Christmas and New Year. Treasurer Kim Single Bloom with the team celebrate at Castle Place precinct as they close down the shop after announcing the final figure for the Bath Cancer Support Unit Group.
Photo courtesy of Trevor Porter
Mike Taylor (Chair of the BCUSG) gave thanks to Sue Oliver (Chair of Trowbridge Branch), all the helpers and volunteers; thanks also to Donna and Castle Place Shopping Centre. Finally thanks to all the donors of the goods sold and our customers who purchased goods for making this a spectacular year with all monies going to the Cancer Unit of the RUH in Bath.
TROWBRIDGE
POP UP SHOP
Photos courtesy of Trevor Porter
Staff at Trowbridge’s latest pop-up charity shop have noticed that in this testing economic climate many Christmas present browsers are turning to a more economical way of shopping. The shop held a vast range of items from children’s toys to new labelled items, nearly new goods and hand crafted items which were snapped up by shoppers looking for that Christmas gift bargain.
Thanks to staff and management of Castle Place Shopping Centre who enabled the shop to open and have facilitated the storage of all the stock collected over the past few months.
The shop ran from the end of November until Christmas Eve and was staffed by a wonderful group of volunteers from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm. It is hoped that thanks to the efforts of our volunteers, the sum raised will match or exceed the figure taken when the pop-up Christmas shop operated two years ago.
FROME BRANCH
The Frome and District Fund Raising Group of Bath Cancer Unit Support Group held a collection in the Frome Sainsburys Store on 17 December. As the Chairman of the BCUSG Trustees, I would like to thank our helpers and volunteers, who manned the collection tins from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm, the staff at Sainsburys and most of all the public who donated to our charity. The sum collected amounts to just under a wonderful £500. One of our supporters has made up the shortfall to a total of £500. So many of the customers not only made a donation but also told us of their own or a family member’s treatment at the RUH Cancer Unit. It was good to hear so many very positive comments.’
Photo Courtesy of Trevor Porter
Growth of a fund-raising book
Gardener Robin Dallimore has been raising and selling plants from his Union Street allotment to raise monies for the Trowbridge Branch of the BCUSG. He has been involved with the charity for over 30 years, raising tens of thousands of pounds.
Photo Courtesy of Trevor Porter
Now Robin has cultivated a crop of poems, some serious, some jovial in order to harvest them and, with a grant from the Trowbridge Trust, his ambition to print the anthology of 50 poems has been realised. He said” Thanks to a close group of friends I have secured some finance to be able to publish my book of poems. I have dedicated my book to the memory of my late wife and best friend June, who was the last surviving founder member of the Trowbridge Branch of the Bath Cancer Unit Support Group, so it’s fitting all the monies raised from the sale of this book will go to the said charity.”
His book entitled “Poetry Emotion” is available to purchase for £5 from the Trowbridge Tourist Information Centre.
WESLEY ROAD CLUB HOSTED THE 4TH QUIZ NIGHT ON THE 4 NOVEMBER 2022
Thanks to Dave Birch for setting nine rounds of general knowledge questions and a picture round. This asked teams to identify the TV/Film crime fighting duos.
67 people made up 15 teams in total with a target of 118 points. It was a close finish the top scorer being “Dowsetts Dynamos” with 107 points; “The Marshans” came second with 106 points and with a joint score of 105 points came “Can’t Remember” and “Milly, Maud and Maple”.
Thanks go to all the supporters of this event; Trowbridge Committee members and friends; Marie for assisting with the scoring; Glenn and Lynsey for the super trophies and Wesley Road Club for all their help and use of the function room.
Including the well supported raffle, the total for the evening raised a fantastic £646!
FRIENDS OF BRATTON SCHOOL CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EVENING
Thanks are given to Glenn Sharp for all his hard work making and selling so many beautiful items on behalf of the Charity.
On Thursday 10 November 2022, the BOATHOUSE bar and restaurant in Bradford on Avon was the venue for a charity concert held in aid of the Bath Cancer Unit Support Group.
The concert was given by The Steeple Rock Choir conducted by its founder and leader Adrienne Hale. The choir was made up of forty singers who gave a fantastic performance of mixed music comprising of soul, rock, pop and gospel.
An audience of over sixty people came along to support the evening. They were given song sheets and asked to join in with the choir on a couple of numbers. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
A raffle took place and included star prizes kindly donated by The Maharaja Tandoori and Widbook Grange Hotel.
A retiring collection was taken and the total funds raised on the evening amounted to £466.95.
BCUSG would like to thank the Boathouse management for enabling this concert to take place at their venue and to the organisers of this event.
FROME BRANCH
Thanks go to the Rotary Club members of Frome Town for their donation of £5000.
The Rotary Club of Frome Selwood has also donated £1500 and our thanks go their members.
Sainsburys, Frome has allocated our new Frome Branch a collection slot on the 17 December. If you are able to help with this - or any other event, please contact [email protected]
Thank you to all those who took part in our Bingo Evening. We raised the fantastic sum of £406.10.
Two Quiz Nights have been held since we started back with our fundraising post-Covid! The first in November 2021 raised an amazing £1004 and the second on the 17 June 2022 added another £538. It is the first time Trowbridge Branch have held a summer quiz so thanks to all our wonderful participants.
NEW BRANCH
A new branch covering Frome/Shepton Mallet/ Radstock is currently being formed. Their first meeting was held on the 6 June 2022.
To kickstart their fundraising, the branch has already been given a donation of £5000 thanks to the Frome Town branch of the Rotary Club.
Anyone interested in helping in any way or becoming a committee member should contact Chairman of Trustees Mike Taylor at [email protected].
Quiz Night
A quiz night was held at the end of November. Thanks go to the Wesley Road Club for providing a room and looking after us so well. There were approximately 80 attendees which was more than expected but made for a very enjoyable evening.
Dave Birch made a fantastic quiz master and had also set all the questions for the evening. The winning team was Mike and the Mechanics so congratulations to them.
Harvest Supper
An evening to thank volunteers and fundraisers was held at The Farmhouse Inn, Southwick on the 9 November. A meal prepared by Hilary, Rachel Creber and Sally Pinner was enjoyed by the 78 attendees. Trustees of the Charity took the opportunity to present certificates to fundraisers and donors in place of the annual Presentation Evenings, usually held in the spring but which had to be cancelled for 2020 and 2021.
The Mayor of Trowbridge, Councillor Denis Bates gave a short address thanking the supporters for their contributions and complimenting the Charity of its achievements.
Sue Oliver, the Chair of the Trowbridge Fundraising Committee, also thanked volunteers who had assisted with events which had been able to take place over the last 19 months, mainly the ‘Pop-up’ Shop in Castle Place Shopping Centre.
The Superintendent Therapeutic Radiographer at the RUH, Andrea Baynes, provided an outline of the new fundraising project for the Charity (details of which can be seen on the Current Projects page of the website).
Finally Mike Taylor, Chair of the Trustees gave an update on recent projects and informed volunteers that Dr Martyn Evans had confirmed that the 5000th patients will shortly receive a scan on the PET CT scanner which was purchased by the Charity in 2016 at a cost of £1.2m.
Tino Polledri (middle photo), the outgoing Vice-Chair of the Trustees and Chair of the Trowbridge Committee was presented with a gift on his retirement and thanked for all his fundraising work over many years.
We had a super weekend at #AsdaFrome when we held our first supermarket collection since lockdown. We raised £1153.14 in total, which is a fantastic result. We’d like to thank the staff, who went out of their way to make sure we had a good position, and the generous customers who supported us.
We’re also delighted to have received a £200 donation from the #AsdaFoundation through #GreenTokenGiving. Thanks again to the staff and customers at #AsdaFrome for nominating and voting for us!
Green Token Giving supports local, grassroots organisations making a positive impact on their local community and helping to improve lives.
Trowbridge Pop-Up Shop and Wishing Tree
We would like to thank the many donors, supporters and customers who helped to make the pop-up shop such a success in these difficult times. Thanks go to staff at the Castle Place Shopping Centre who provided the shop and storage space; also to the team at AL Electrical who PAT tested all donated electrical items – all done free of charge
The Trowbridge Fundraising Branch of the BCUSG, came together in 1988, in order to support the Charity through fundraising events within the Trowbridge area. Over time, the team has grown and now also has members within Bradford on Avon, Westbury and Warminster, who come together once a month to plan store collections and local events.
The fundraising events over the past 30 years have been numerous and to date, the small team has raised over £530,000. Some of our favourites include Bingo, Cream Teas, Half Marathons, International Food evenings, Magic shows, Race Nights, Quiz Nights, tandem Skydives and Zumba! However, the theme of fundraising is only restricted by imagination – and we always welcome new and innovative ideas to raise funds for our local Cancer Unit.
If you would like to get involved and help fundraise with the Trowbridge team, we would love to hear from you. We welcome any help, from giving a few hours a year to help with store collections, to joining our friendly committee to help plan events. Or maybe, you are organising your own event and just need some information.
Forthcoming events:
We have cancelled all planned fundraising events and store collections due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
But we intend to re-schedule these events once it is safe to do so.
Take care and stay safe.
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