Huge thanks to Sue Adkins for supporting us again this year, raising £2,100 for Dryden Ward & Do it for Dementia.
Sue Adkins & Lesley Tilling presenting the £2,100 raised from this year’s weekend to Dryden Ward Sister Edrina Sutherland & Dementia Liaison Nurse Catherine Lowe.
Torrential downpours threatened the first day of Sue Adkins’ Afternoon Tea Weekend this year, but rain certainly did not stop play!
“We woke up to the gazebos collapsed on the ground in the garden,” Sue commented, “and as we were so worried we decided to bring everything indoors for the first day.” It is a far cry from last year when Sue held the weekend in mid-July at the very height of the lengthy and blistering heatwave gripping the UK.
“That was torture, too!” both Sue and husband, Phil reminisce.
Day one could have turned out disastrous but with their dedication to making sure everything went ahead it did involve a lot of extra work that hadn’t been factored into their schedule.
They had to move loads of things upstairs to make room to bring it all inside and then follow this up with a clean-up operation to restore the home back to normal afterwards.
Thankfully some more pleasant weather returned on the Sunday so day two was able to take place outside as intended and it turned out to be a really beautiful day.
Together with her team of dedicated helpers, including husband, Phil and sister, Lesley Tilling, they offered up no less than 106 Afternoon Teas!
Even the few people who could no longer make it to the event itself asked for a takeaway instead.
With everything home-made and incredibly delicious it’s no wonder people didn’t want to miss out.
“It does take a lot of meticulous planning, catering for gluten-free and other such requirements…one of the takeaways requested cheese-only sandwiches.”
Over £500 was collected from the raffle, which was drawn on the Sunday and again this year captivated everyone’s interest.
With the top prize a weekend away it’s great that tickets sold so well, contributing to the incredible £2,100 raised in total!!
From last year’s two-day event Sue raised £1,800, donating £900 to the Stroke Unit at Northampton General Hospital.
She decided to support Northamptonshire Health Charity again this year by fundraising in aid of another two areas.
Dryden ward and dementia care are both close to Sue’s heart, and to those of her husband and family.
With Sue’s sisters having Cardiomyopathy they have been under the care of Cardiology and Dryden over the years so Sue chose to fundraise for the ward as a thank you for the excellent care and treatment they’ve received.
Phil’s father has dementia and so Sue decided to split the amount raised this year with the Do it for Dementia appeal, which seeks to create dementia-friendly spaces and enhance dementia care for patients across the hospital.
Sue came in with Lesley recently to present the £2,100 to Dryden Ward Sister, Edrina and Dementia Liaison Nurse, Catherine Lowe.
Each thanked them for their £1,050 share of the total and got to hear more about the wonderful weekend that raised it.
Sue and Phil admit they learned a lot of lessons from planning and running last year’s event and felt this year things did feel like they went more smoothly, even with the weather chaos.
Everyone really gets behind it and offers their support.
Sue mentioned about when she was looking for tea sets in the RSPCA charity shop and got talking to the lady in the shop who had had personal experience with Stroke.
Finding out that Sue had donated to the Stroke Unit last year, the lady paid for the tea sets Sue had found in the shop saying that was her donation towards her fundraising event.
How lovely!
Many who attended have already been asking about when next year’s event will be.
“We were thinking of maybe doing something a bit different next year, to keep things fresh” admits Sue, “but with so many people already asking about it, we don’t want to disappoint them.”
Whatever they decide, we know it will be fantastic and everyone will be guaranteed yet another wonderful weekend, while raising money for good causes.
Thank you so much Sue, for supporting us again and thanks to everyone who helped make this another huge success!