Page updated 10 November 2010

Lady Captain 2011 (Mandy Rix)
 

My charity is the Essex Air Ambulance which provides a free life-saving service for Essex and surrounding areas.  Specialist Doctors and Ambulance Service Paramedics can be rushed to the scene of an incident with life-saving support equipment and the patient, following assessment, will be flown to an appropriate hospital.  Unlike other NHS emergency services Essex Air Ambulance is a charity relying solely upon the generosity and goodwill of the people and businesses of Essex to remain operational and saving lives.  For this reason, both Alan Irvine and myself have chosen to support this organisation, hopefully none of us will ever require its services but you can never be sure.

 

Lady Captain 2010 (Maggie Demuth)

My charity is the East Anglian Children's Hospice in Ipswich which I visited on Wednesday 21st October.  There is a remarkable team of people working in impossible conditions. They have been donated a site, have obtained planning permission, and hope to start work on the new Hospice in 2010. They certainly need financial support.

 

Lady Captain 2009 (Bridget Whitworth)

Our Lady Captain is supporting two charities this year:

1    Bowel Cancer UK 

Suzi Robins was a dear friend and I know she is greatly missed by everyone that knew her – she was a unique personality and fought her illness with enormous courage and dignity, but nonetheless she lost the battle as do so many others.  Bowel Cancer UK is a charity dedicated to improving the quality of life of those affected by the disease and ultimately, reducing deaths from the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK. 

2     Spinal Research UK 

Again for personal reasons.  Every year more than 800 people in the UK are paralysed following injury to their spinal cord.  Spinal Research UK raises money to fund research into clinical treatments as well as vital basic scientific research and thanks to this research paralysis can, in some cases, now be treated and they are on the brink of applying therapies that will restore movement and feeling and transform the lives of paralysed people – such as Daniel, the son of a friend of mine who was paralysed in a car accident, that was not his fault, at the age of 18 – he is now 23, and while he has his own home, he has a carer with him 24 hours a day and for him and countless others spinal research is hope, hope for the future.

 

Lady Captain 2008 (Tilly Collard)

The Lady Captain's charity is the "Colchester Oncology Research Fund".  It's a local charity based at the hospital.  It is partly funded by the NHS but mostly by public donations.  A talk will be given at the Chat In in January concerning the charity. 

 

Centenary Lady Captain 2007 (Liz Lennox)

The Centenary Lady Captain's charities are The British Heart Foundation and the Essex Air Ambulance.

The sum of £260 was raised for the Essex Air Ambulance by Brian Borges who sold onions, which he had picked and strung, to friends and family.  The Lady Captain thanked Brian at the Ladies' Coffee Morning on 14th November.

 

Lady Captain 2006 (Jill Nunny)

The sum of over £600 was raised for Jill Nunny's charity Ovarian Cancer Action from October 2005 - October 2006.  Jill thanks everyone for their generosity.