As a trickle of voters climbed the Marlborough town hall steps yesterday (Thursday) they were confronted with a huge cheque presentation event that proved the power of the community to come to the aid of those in need.
Councillor Edwina Fogg, the town’s elegant mayor, chose Prospect Hospice as her mayoral charity during the Queen’s diamond jubilee year, inspired to do so after the partner of her next door neighbour, Susie Fisher, died there.
The hospice provides dedicated end of life care for more than 1,800 patients a year, care received by patients at home for those who prefer to stay in family surroundings or in the Great Western Hospital through a pioneering partnership between the two organisations, support too for families and carers.
“That happened two weeks before the mayor-making ceremony to which they were both invited,” she told Marlborough News Online. “Susie and others on the committee threw themselves into organising a host of fund-raising events.
“We refused to set a target of much we could raise. ‘What are you talking about?’ somebody said when £6,000 was mentioned. But then the amount crept up and up. And I couldn’t believe it when we hit £8,000.”
Edwina presented a large-scale cheque to Sheryl Crouch, for the past five years head of fund raising at Prospect, which costs £5.4 million to run, some £4 million of that coming from outside sources, including community support and donations.
“It’s an enormous, ongoing task,” Sheryl told Marlborough News Online. “Without people like Edwina and the support of the community we wouldn’t reach our target.
“When I met her a year ago on this project she kept saying, ‘Let’s not have huge expectations on this.’ So raising £8,000 is fabulous, absolutely fantastic.”
Wiltshire Council election results
