Fundraising mums make a difference for Lindsey Lodge Hospice

Two Ashby mums have raised over £1,800 for a North Lincolnshire hospice through a series of fun-filled family events.

When good friends Chantelle Smedley (29) and Nicola Garrod (39) signed up for Lindsey Lodge Hospice’s Glow Walk earlier this year, they decided to set a fundraising target of £500, but instead of asking for sponsorship they got their families, friends and local community involved – raising over three times more than they’d planned to.

Mum of five Nicola said: “I’ve taken part in other fundraising events before, and didn’t think it was fair to keep asking the same people to sponsor me, so when Chantelle came on board we put our heads together to come up with ideas for raising the funds in a different way.”

Mum of two Chantelle added: “Our families come first for both of us and we didn’t want our fundraising to interfere with caring for them, so we came up with events that they could get involved in, that would also appeal to other families and friends.”

Their first event was a Fun Day on Saturday 17 March, which despite the blizzard-like conditions saw families flocking to St Paul’s Church Hall in Ashby to enjoy a fun-filled afternoon.

There then followed a whole host of fundraising activities including a collection at the Matalan Store at Skippingdale Retail Park, non-uniform days at local schools as well as a Fun Walk and Picnic event at Central Park attended by over 100 people.

Chantelle added: “There are so many people to thank!

“We’re so grateful to St Paul’s Church and Matalan for their support and to Ashby stores Barnes and Iceland for donating some brilliant raffle prizes too.

“We’d also like to say thank you to our children’s schools, Lincoln Gardens Primary School and Fredrick Gough Secondary School, for raising money for our cause by holding non-uniform days and local Zumba teacher Penny Goulding for her wonderful warm up at our Fun Walk, and for all of her help over the past few months.

“And finally we couldn’t have done this without the support of our families, especially Nicola’s husband Leon, who baked lots of cakes, designed our posters and helped with the technology of getting information out on social media – thanks Leon!”

The pair joined over 250 other walkers on Friday 6 July to take part in Lindsey Lodge’s 30,000 step Glow Walk which se the Burringham Road based Hospice.

Lindsey Lodge Fundraiser Sharon Tune said: “A massive thank you to Nicola and Chantelle for their amazing support. They’ve worked so hard arranging these events around caring for their families. They really are a fantastic example of how to get the local community on board with your fundraising!”

She added: “Our current Glow Walk total stands at just over £25,000, but there are still a few people who have yet to pop in with their donation, so the final figure could be around £27,000.

“We’d like to thank each and every one of our glow steppers for signing up and turning out to raise funds. Every penny they’ve donated goes towards ensuring we continue to provide our specialist palliative care to patients and their families across North Lincolnshire.”