PGM Thanks Members of Province for Their Generosity in TLC Raffle
Our PGM, David Medlock, has thanked Somerset Freemasons for their generous response to last year’s TLC Raffle. The raffle was organised by Somerset TLC Coordinator, Roger Penny, to celebrate the donation of our 50,000th Teddy in Somerset and assigned to support the NHS in honour of the National NHS Frontline Day.
A 20” Bear was put up for raffle and all members of the Province were invited to take part at £1 per ticket.The response to this draw exceeded all expectations and over £4000 was raised. Roger then submitted an application for “Match Funding” to the Executive and they agreed to increase the donation by 50%.
This brought the total to be donated to £6000 and at the request of the PGM the funds were ear marked to help youngsters, in keeping with the aims of the TLC Charity.
The winner of the bear was Bro Fletcher-Price of the Emergency Services Lodge and his name was drawn at random by Assistant PGM Richard Winter.
The money has been distributed in equal shares of £2000 to each of the three major A&E hospitals – Musgrove Park in Taunton, RUH in Bath and Yeovil District.
TLC is already well known in these hospitals as for twenty years we have been donating teddies for distressed toddlers to help pacify them thus helping the staff to administer treatment. In fact we supply every A&E and Minor Injury Unit in the County.
Roger said:- “I was blown away by the response to the raffle and I am grateful to the Brethren of Somerset for making this possible.”
David Medlock said:- “We are always pleased to support our local hospital charities. I am all too aware of the contribution they make, which is important to the smooth running of the hospitals and the patient experience. We are particularly pleased that these contributions will help young patients and we have no doubt that the projects supported in each of the three hospitals will bring comfort to them. Thank you to all members of the Province who lent their support to this initiative”
Rosie Scott, from RUH-X said “A big thank you to David and Roger for this generous donation from Somerset Freemasons TLC. We will be using the funds to buy nine special mobile phones which will be allocated to young children suffering from Type 1 Diabetes. These phones will enable those children to discretely monitor their condition and will be allocated to children whose families could not otherwise afford the equipment.”
Sonia Bateman from Yeovil Hospital Charity Fundraising Team said:- “Thank you to everyone who donated towards the raffle and helped raise such an amazing amount for our Children’s Ward. The hospital’s hardworking and specialist paediatric team care for children of all ages with a range of illnesses and I know that a donation like this will make a huge difference to young peoples’ stay in hospital. Yeovil Hospital Charity has recently used other donations like this to fund medical equipment, to pay for parts of the ward to be refurbished and to fund lots of games and technology to help children and young people to relax and stay in touch with their friends and family.”
Dan Varley, Community Fundraiser at Love Musgrove, the official charity of Musgrove Park Hospital said “This will make a huge difference to the support we can provide to our youngest patients and their families. Any time in hospital can be worrying, but especially for children so we do all we can above and beyond what the NHS can provide. The gift from Teddies for Loving Care in Somerset will have such an impact and will be used to create a much needed relaxation area for adolescent children.”
