LILAC Raises Half a Million Pounds in Aid of Big C

Local fundraising group, LILAC (Ladies In League Against Cancer) has raised over £500,000 since it started supporting Big C Cancer Charity in 2005.

Ladies in League Against Cancer is a group of ladies raising funds for Big C Cancer Charity to support people affected by cancer and help their families and friends come to terms with the illness of a loved one.

The group was started by Theresa Cossey MBE and Gaye Youngman in 2005 as a voluntary fundraising group focused on fun and friendship, and raises funds to support the work of Big C.

In recent years LILAC has supported each of Big C’s Cancer Support Centres across the county, where they have funded a LILAC room, the most recent of which was the complementary therapy room at the new Norwich City Cancer Support Centre in Dereham Road, Norwich. Their fundraising efforts have also included funding a camera for UEA School of Biological Sciences, an annual student bursary at Norwich Research Park, projection equipment for the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) Oncology Department and supporting the hospital’s Boudicca Appeal.

Gaye Youngman, chair of LILAC said “When Theresa Cossey MBE and I created LILAC in 2005 we had no idea how it would grow over the years to enable us to raise such significant funding.  Our thanks go to the tremendous support we receive from our committee and our members, which enables us to continue each year with our programme of events and our support of the work of Big C, improving the lives of local people and their families affected by cancer.”

LILAC has announced that in 2024 it will support a 4-year PhD project in collaboration with Big C and the UEA Science Faculty, support the Big C ‘Nourish & Nurture’ nutrition and wellness programme as well as the creation of a Big C Family support programme in collaboration with the Jenny Lind Department at NNUH.

Norwich City squad come together to raise much needed funds

Talk Norwich City (TNC) has teamed up with Big C Cancer Charity to help raise money, with the launch of an online raffle and auction, which begins on 4 February to mark World Cancer Day.

Jack Reeve and Chris Reeve, founders of the Norwich City fan channel TNC have been working closely with a variety of first-team players to launch ‘The Ultimate Norwich City Raffle’. Memorabilia such as boots, shirts and gloves have been donated by players including Jonathan Rowe, Josh Sargent, Gabriel Sara and Angus Gunn, to help this worthy cause.

The raffle and auction will commence at 12.01am on 4 February, running through until 29 February at 8pm.

Chris Reeve, co-founder at Talk Norwich City said “We’re absolutely delighted to be going live on World Cancer Day with our most anticipated fundraiser for Big C yet – The Ultimate Norwich City Raffle!

This one time only opportunity gives the Yellow Army everywhere the chance to potentially get their hands on some incredible Norwich City memorabilia in the form of not just one, but three different bundles.

We are thrilled to have four extra special items available as auction items including a pair of signed, worn, Johnny Rowe boots and a match-prepared Kenny McLean Scotland shirt from their European qualifier Vs Norway.”

The idea was formed following the huge success of a Big C Charity raffle for a Sara signed shirt which raised almost £3,000.

Chris said “We thought to ourselves, what if Sara’s teammates all came together to do one big raffle?! How much more could we raise?”

The support offered by each of these players has been outstanding, which, it is hoped will raise vital funds for local charity Big C, which supports people affected by cancer in Norfolk and surrounding counties. Special thanks go to Adam Idah, Angus Gunn and Onel Hernandez who were the ‘delivery drivers’ for so many of these items.

Details of the raffle and auction can be found by visiting Big C’s Charity Hive page below.

Success with Big C’s National Three Peaks Challenge

Across the weekend of 11^th – 14^th August 2023, Team Big C took on the National Three Peaks Challenge across England, Scotland and Wales. The last time Team Big C had taken on the challenge was in June of 2017 and the team this year were just as excited to take part six years later!

With their kits packed and prepared, the team of fourteen set of on the morning of Friday 11^th August on their almost five-hundred-mile journey to Scotland to climb Ben Nevis first, the highest of the three peaks, sitting at 4413 feet above sea level! The climb was wet and windy the whole way, with many walkers slipping. Despite this, morale amongst the walkers remained high!

Following the descent, the team journeyed through the night to reach their second peak; Scafell Pike, towering at 3209 feet above sea level. Throughout the climb, walkers were only able to see a few feet in front of them with only their head-torches for visibility. On top of this, winds at the summit were reaching gusts of forty miles per hour.

When the team woke on Sunday morning, the only peak left to conquer was Snowdon in Wales, dominating the Welsh landscape with its magnificent summit being 3560 feet high. Members of the group said the views were incredible on their descent with the clearer weather.

Following this on Sunday evening, the team enjoyed a well-earned meal and rest overnight, with their coach heading back to Norwich on Monday morning! On their return, the team were greeted and cheered on by some more members of Big C back in Norwich. Totalling over one thousand miles travelled and the three highest peaks in the United Kingdom conquered, many members of the group spoke about looking forward to a hot bath, bed and a takeaway awaiting them!

This event also would not have been possible without the generosity and support of Wright’s Coaches, Solar Signs and Graphics as well as DMD Installations.

The total raised through the challenge sits at £13,559, an incredible total for an incredible challenge!

Rosina Plane Launches New Crochet Pattern in Aid of Big C

Local Crochet Designer, Rosina Plane is launching a new Christmas ‘Crochet Along’ pattern raising funds for Big C, in memory of her cousin Sonia, who sadly died last year.

Rosina said “I have never known anybody more kind and generous than my cousin Sonia was. She absolutely loved Christmas but was tragically taken from us by cancer just a few days before Christmas 2022. I hadn’t originally intended to do a Christmas CAL (Crochet Along) in 2023, but I would really like to try to raise some money for a local cancer charity in Sonia’s memory.”

The pattern, ‘Sonia’s Holiday’ is being sponsored by Stylecraft Yarns, and for every purchase of the pattern on Ravelry, a community site for knitters and crocheters, £2 will be donated to Big C.

Kat Jarvis, Fundraising Officer at Big C said “We’re absolutely thrilled that the talented Rosina Plane has offered to help raise funds through the sale of her beautiful pattern. Any money raised will go towards helping local people affected by cancer in Norfolk and surrounding counties, whether that’s through 1:1 support, counselling, our health and wellbeing programmes, or simply a listening ear.”

Rosina is well-known for her graphic patterns which work particularly well in the mosaic technique, and she is the founding member of the popular Facebook group, Mosaic Crochet World.

‘Sonia’s Holiday’ is a 6-part CAL (Crochet Along), worked using the overlay mosaic crochet technique. If you haven’t tried mosaic crochet before, it’s much easier to do than it looks, as basic stitches are used, and there are no mid-row colour changes.

Buy the pattern from the Ravelry website

The pattern was launched on 12^th October. Part 1 will be available on 27^th October and each subsequent week, Rosina will add the pattern for a different part of the design to Ravelry, starting with Christmas crackers, then trees, candles, bells, wreaths and angels, and ending with a beautiful fairy lights envelope border.

Each part includes clearly marked charts and full written instructions. Videos on Rosina’s You Tube channel will explain the pattern each week in more detail as well as the basics of mosaic crochet for anyone new to the technique.

To be in with a chance of winning one of four yarn packs to make ‘Sonia’s Holiday’ CAL, visit Big C’s Just Giving page below.

Big C signs up to The Charity Shop Gift Card

Big C is now accepting The Charity Shop Gift Card — the only nationally accepted, multi-retailer gift card that can be spent exclusively in charity shops.

The Charity Shop Gift Card is a not-for-profit that has been developed and launched in association with the Charity Retail Association.

Big C is now selling and accepting it in its eleven shops*, which provides a significant contribution to the work in supporting families impacted by cancer across the region and also funds specialist equipment and internationally significant research projects based at the Norwich Research Park.

The gift card for good is being accepted by regional charities in most areas of the UK and in the national network of shops run by Sense, Marie Curie, Shelter, Crisis, YMCA and The Children’s Society.

Suzanne Comaskey, Retail Operations Manager for Big C said: “We’ve been waiting to join the scheme for a while now so thrilled to finally launch the gift card. We truly believe that the gift card will be well received by our customers and it will hopefully introduce some new people to the benefit of charity shopping.” 

We’re delighted to now be working with Big C adding some great charity shops to the network in Norfolk.  The scheme is now growing rapidly making it an ideal gift for people that want to shop more consciously and reduce their impact on the environment.

Lee Fellows, Co-founder of The Charity Shop Gift Card

The scheme will support the growing second-hand revolution, which is helping to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. It will also help national and regional charities boost their own income by giving them their first collective opportunity to tap into the £7billion-a-year gift card market.

The Charity Retail Association has 450 members with 9,000 shops, and together they are already diverting over 300,000 tonnes of textiles away from landfill and contributing over £300million to help fund the work of their parent charities.

As a social enterprise, a minimum of 65% of the gift card scheme’s surplus will go towards funding charity gift cards for good causes to donate to the communities they are supporting.

The gift cards themselves are recyclable and compostable and are available from participating charities and at supermarkets and other major high street retailers. They can be purchased as e-vouchers from www.thecharityshopgiftcard.co.uk.

The Charity Shop Gift Card is a member of Social Enterprise UK, and the Gift Card and Voucher Association.

*Please be aware, we are unable to accept the gift cards online or at our ebay site.

Norwich Energy Consultancy raises over £8,000 for Big C

Local energy experts, Indigo Swan, have raised over £8000 for Big C Cancer Charity. The energy enthusiasts are proud to have raised this amount throughout 2022 through a series of fundraising challenges and events.

The team at Indigo Swan have been supporting Big C for the past few years.  Big C is Norfolk’s largest cancer charity. They are committed to improving the lives of those affected by cancer. Their mission is to enable Norfolk and Waveney to be a centre of excellence for the provision of cancer services, and to contribute to the international reputation for excellence in cancer research locally.

James Groves, Managing Director of Indigo Swan said:

Everyone comes into contact with cancer at some stage in their life, it might be a relative, a colleague or themselves and the work that Big C is doing is so very important to the care and support needed across our county when it comes to this terrible illness. Personally my Mum had Breast Cancer about 20 years ago and I am so pleased she survived and lives a healthy life to this day, but this is not always the case, so for Indigo Swan to support the work Big C does is so important to me and the Swans. Regardless of the outcome the support is there to get through what is an extremely testing, challenging and in cases heartbreaking time and we thank Big C for all they do and will continue to raise as much as we can moving forward for this amazing cause.

The money was raised through a range of activities and events, including a bingo event, bake sales and their annual Indigo Swan quiz. One of their swans, Rich also took part in the challenge of a lifetime, ‘Ride Across Britain’, where he cycled 980 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats, over nine days.

Tom Holmes, Events & Engagement Manager at Big C said:

‘Everyone at Big C is incredibly grateful to Indigo Swan for their amazing support. It’s been great to see so many of their staff engaging with such a range of fundraising activities, from bingo nights to sporting challenges. The money they have raised will allow us to continue to expand the support Big C offer to people affected by cancer in the local area’.