Charity golf raises funds for NCCCT
A CHARITY golf day has raised 6,300TL for the North Cyprus Cancer Charity Trust (NCCCT) — with a final-hole prize awarded in memory of a popular businessman who lost his own six-month battle against the disease in November last year.
Players competed last Saturday at the Korineum club where Okan Emirali Tekünlü used to be a member. The father of two, who founded Girne’s SuperClean dry cleaners with his wife, Clare, in the late 1990s, passed away after returning to North Cyprus from Turkey, where the family had started the first Indian restaurant in the Belek area of Antalya.
Forty-seven players teed off in the Stableford competition, with Sally Wallace receiving the Okan Tekünlü Memorial Trophy for being closest to the pin.
Overall victory went to Denise Umpleby, who won a 200-euro voucher towards a golfing holiday, with Soner Yetkili in second and Gareth Griffiths third. Aydın Fidaner won the “nearest the line” contest.
Wendy Anderson, chairman of the NCCCT which has been chosen for support this year by club captains David Umpleby and Julie Freeland, gave a speech about the charity to players and spectators, later telling CyprusToday: “It was a lovely atmos- phere during the day, which actually reduced me to tears. We give our sincere thanks to the captains of the ladies’ and men’s teams and to the club for caring about our work.
“We have recently been to two events held to raise funds for our charity and we have been overwhelmed. The money raised will be kept in our account until we receive a request from Girne State Hospital for equipment that it would like us to purchase.”
She added: “Although we have collected more money so far this year compared to last, devaluation of the Turkish lira has not been helpful as the medical equipment we buy is priced in foreign currency.”
Mrs Anderson said that, following a committee meeting this week, an NCCCT coffee morning might take place at the end of the month or early in July before the charity’s fundraising events are suspended for the summer.