Couple raise £35,000 for Dorset Cancer Centre at charity evening
Nick and Jen Burchell (fourth and sixth from left, back row) hand over a cheque for £35,000 to staff at the Dorset Cancer Centre.
A patient at Poole Hospital’s Dorset Cancer Centre has raised an incredible £35,000 for the hospital by organising a grand-scale charity dinner and auction with his wife. Nick Burchell – who is currently receiving treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma – organised the event with wife Jen as a way of saying ‘thanks’ for the care he has received at the hospital since he was first treated in 2006.
The couple organised an evening of ‘Fun, Feasting & Fundraising’ at the Hamworthy Club in June, including a three-course dinner, prize draw and live music. The evening also included a charity auction featuring spectacular lots, all kindly donated by local people and businesses. Prizes included a helicopter trip, two-week stay in Thailand, luxury dinner for 10 and signed Arsenal shirt, and another seven prizes were donated during the evening by generous guests, raising a further £7,000!
The charity event was also supported by Barclays, who provided the couple with a Barclays Community Account and donated £2,000 in support of the evening.
This isn’t the first time that Nick has raised money for Poole Hospital. He was one of the original fundraisers for the Hospital’s scanner appeal some 25 years ago, raising over £1000 in a sponsored parachute jump!
Nick said: “We originally hoped to raise £10,000 at the fundraising evening but it just took off. I am undergoing treatment for the second time since October 2006, and I just wanted to give something back. I feel I’ve been given another chance – and another on top of another.”
Wife Jen said of the staff at the Dorset Cancer Centre: “These wonderful people have given us the promise of tomorrow.”
Date: 8 August 2008