Thanks a million
TWO stalwart charity fundraisers said “thanks a million” to their friends and supporters this week after bowing out following seven years of service.
Carole King (below left) and Sue Tilt revealed that they had helped raise around 1.2 million TL for the Help Those with Cancer Association (Tulips) as they brought down the curtain on their impressive but gruelling charity work.
“This is an official thank-you to everybody who has helped us, without whom we couldn’t have raised a penny,” the “dynamic duo” said, six weeks after their New Year’s Eve retirement from frontline fundraising activities.
The women, who had first announced in June 2015 that they were stepping down before being persuaded to continue for another two-and-a-half years, said they had made the decision following last year’s “Pink October” and “Stepping Out for Tulips” events, which raised almost 220,000TL over six weeks.
Describing the decision as the “hardest” they have ever made due to their “attachment, love and respect” towards Tulips founding chairman Raziye
Kocaismail, the pair said: “We had to make that break after seven years . . . We were burning out and the demands were too big on us. . . We have no energy [left].”
Recalling their first fundraising event for Tulips – at Çatalköy’s Soyz Sunday Market, raking in 800TL — Mrs King told Cyprus Today: “We were both introduced to Tulips on different terms and at different times, with the desire of giving them something in return for the help Tulips had provided to us.
“We [wanted] to let people know that there’s help out there, a support system — that was our key.
“We were shocked after our first event, when we had so many friends donating items to sell. We thought ‘we can do this’, and we always wanted to do more. You can’t take and not give back.”
Mrs King and Mrs Tilt said that they had been motivated to “do something different” and be “innovative” and that they had set out in 2011 to raise the profile of Tulips among the expat community.
“There was no awareness about what they did at all, especially among the expats, from whom [Tulips] was barely raising 2 per cent [of what they raised] from the locals.”
Highlights of the pairs’ “endless list” of fundraising campaigns included witnessing Tulips supporters “jump off mountain tops” on sponsored paraglides, car treasure hunts, women’s football matches and handbag donations, among others.
The pair said that they would still, however, continue to run the social media and email accounts of Tulips and that they would “never” cut their ties completely with the charity due to their “emotional” attachment to it.
Paying tribute Mrs Kocaismail, Mrs Tilt added: “Raziye is a member of our family and we are hers, which is why when we told her [that we are retiring] she took it extremely hard.
“All these years were such good fun and we had a wonderful experience during this incredible journey.
“We were blessed to meet so many people [who helped raise] so much . . . We are really proud of what we achieved.”
The two urged people to continue providing “desperately needed” support for Tulips, which they said spends 115,000TL a month on cancer treatment for its members.