What Women Want celebrations T
HE drinks flow freely when the What Women Want girls are together.
Raising £300,000 for East Cheshire Hospice over a dozen years is thirsty work.
It’s hard work too, so having fun is key for Jayne Carter, Julie Barnes, Elaine Burgess, Jo Millward and Jill Harding, all from Macclesfield.
Catch ups to organise future WWW fundraising events are social occasions with conversation always centred on how they can help Hospice patients.
Jayne, the group chair and owner of a packaging business, said: “The Hospice is such a special place where people are allowed to die with dignity.
“We try to provide extra things that are little bit special to hospice care.”
They bought a car for Hospice @Home staff, a service which had been launched two years earlier with the help of a £25,000 donation from the group.
Equipment and many other practical items have also been purchased through their generosity.
The WWW link also led to a staggering £1m donation to the Hospice from Steve Malone and Robbie Hargreaves, co-founders of Proseal.
Jayne said: “Their company always sponsored our winter balls and Steve called as I was driving, asking if I was still fundraising for the Hospice and were we looking for anything.
“We were trying to fund a car and Steve, with Robbie on loudspeaker, said they’d like to give the Hospice a million pounds.
“I nearly crashed the car and was crying, it was just amazing.”
The girls’ families also help out, serving drinks and selling raffle tickets at various balls, bingo nights and fashion shows.
Jo, a long-serving HR director at AstraZeneca, recalls a fashion show in which cancer patients were models.
She said: “The atmosphere and love for those models was so powerful.
“The group’s incredibly special to me.
“We’re all pretty strong personalities and you have to be fairly comfortable to get up on stage and corral lots of women who’ve all had a glass of wine.
“We’ve never had a fall out in all the years because the bigger picture always in our mind is what we’re doing it for.”
WWW are holding a themed ball at Cranage Hall on Friday, November 13.