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March 2010

Residents at Mitchell Court raise over £20,000 for charity

Two residents at a Peverel Retirement-managed development are close to breaking the £20,000 mark for money they have raised for charity.

One of them is Mabel Clackson. She may be 94 in June, but Mabel has pulled in over £16,000 for Cancer Research UK and at least £3,000 of that has been generated over the last four years she has been a Resident at the Peverel Retirement-managed Mitchell Court in Horley, West Sussex.

The money has come from quizzes, coffee mornings and events that make the most of Mabel’s horticulture expertise.

“Before I moved to Mitchell Court I had a lovely big garden,” says Mabel. “Someone suggested I open it out to the public as a way of raising money for charity, so I started holding strawberry teas and other events. At one point we had coachloads of people turning up.”

Mabel’s garden won national competitions and under her guidance Mitchell Court’s garden won the Horley in Bloom first prize in her first year at the Peverel Retirement managed development. She still gives talks at HSS and although she recently retired as Mitchell Court’s social club chairman, she is still heavily involved in running fundraising activities.

“I’ve got a good committee helping me and I’ve still got plenty of enthusiasm,” says Mabel. “The next target is to break the £20,000 barrier.”

Peverel Retirement House Manager Dennis Moreira says: “Mabel is an inspiration. Not only does she do all her fundraising, but she’s a mean bridge and Scrabble player too and also runs the bingo nights here.”

Mabel moved in around the same time as 77-year-old Jean Webb, whose card-making cottage industry has raised over £3,300 for St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley.

The card-making idea came to her six years ago when Jean went to buy a birthday card. “I said to myself: ‘I’m not paying a pound for that’,” she recalls.

So she went home and made her own card, and stumbled across a brilliant way of raising money for the hospice that looked after her husband Alf before he passed away.

Six years later, Jean’s card-making cottage industry has raised over £3,300 for St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley.

Jean, who has lived at Mitchell Court for four years, says she has always been artistic. As well as “sewing, knitting and flower arranging” she spends every day making the cards at her home at the Peverel-managed Mitchell Court retirement development in nearby Horley.

“I even personalise them if people ask me to,” she adds. “I’m much better than Moonpig.”

The residents at Mitchell Court now buy her cards, the local hairdresser takes a box as does the nearby Horley Active Retirement Group, where Jean is a member, and all profits left after production costs go to the hospice.

Peverel Retirement House Manager Dennis Moreira says Jean makes get well and birthday cards for the residents. “She also does a monthly cardmaking evening in the Residents’ lounge,” he says.

Peverel Retirement Managing Director Keith Edgar adds: “The amount of money Mabel, Jean and all the other residents at Mitchell Court have raised over the years is staggering. Initiatives like show how people can raise money for causes close to their heart from their own homes. The fact they are getting other residents involved is brilliant.”