Residents from the village of Cliffords Mesne in Gloucestershire have made a generous donation of £5,874 to benefit cancer patients at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, after holding two fundraising events.

The first event was held on 11 June 2016, in celebration of the Queen’s 90th birthday, and took place on one of the village’s roads, which was closed especially for the celebration. Two hundred and fifty residents from the village and nearby attended. A donation of £800 was made from the proceeds of the lunch party. The second event was held in the garden of one of the organisers, Pat Milsom, with a cross-section of local friends and relatives in attendance.

Pat and her friend, Peter Street, decided to organise the events to raise money as both had benefitted from the excellent care provided by QEHB in the past; Peter received a liver transplant in July 2013, and has been an active fundraiser ever since, while Pat’s husband Dick received treatment for pancreatic cancer before sadly passing away. The two fundraisers visited the hospital earlier this year to look at its new facilities, and were immediately impressed by CyberKnife, a multi-million pound radiotherapy machine purchased by QEHB Charity which is allowing doctors to treat tumours that would previously have been thought of as inoperable.

Pat said: “I want to say thank you to QEHB for the wonderful care that they gave to my husband Dick Milsom when he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Everything that could be done was done with great efficiency and kindness.”

To say thank you, the generous pair decided to throw a party in their village, and they went all out, organising a pig roast, a bar, and live music performed by a local musician. They also staged a raffle, and an auction, featuring incredible prizes kindly provided by local businesses, which raised well over £1,000 of the total sum. The total £5,874 will soon see another increase of 25% in government Gift Aid, taking the final tally to over £7,000, all of which will go towards the QEHB Cancer Appeal.

Peter added: “We knew we could pull this one off, as some thirteen years ago I did a fundraising walk along the Great Wall of China for a local charity, and Pat had helped with a similar garden party and auction.   We were most fortunate in having a great team around us to be able to do as well as we did – the local businesses were phenomenal with their generous raffle and auction prizes. We also had an amazing chef who donated and cooked the pig and the other food. Likewise all the people who attended were incredibly supportive of the cause.”

Peter and Pat came to QEHB to present QEHB Charity’s Head of Fundraising, Justine Davy, and Advanced CyberKnife Practitioner Adiela Kapadia with their cheque for £5,874. Justine said: “This fabulous donation will enable us to keep CyberKnife up-to-date and treating patients in ways we just couldn’t before we had access to this machine. I’d like to thank all the residents of Cliffords Mesne for their selfless generosity in contributing to this incredible donation.”

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