Communities across the Stevenage and North Herts area will be going stir crazy tomorrow – in a good way – for the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Although the official event tomorrow, some have already been doing their bit for the cause while others have fundraisers lined up at the weekend.
Kerry Cunnane, Macmillan’s fundraising manager for Herts, said: “Coffee morning started in 1990 by a small committee and now it is Macmillan’s largest fundraising event – raising over £25 million last year! This year we are hoping to raise even more and we want to say a huge thank you for all the events organised in Stevenage and North Herts.
“Every year we are overwhelmed at how many events take place in the Comet readership area but we are so grateful to everyone who organises or attends one. “The money raised will help to provide local services for people diagnosed with cancer and their friends and family, so again a huge thank you from the Hertfordshire fundraising team.”
Friday, September 30
• Nationwide Building Society’s branch in Stevenage town centre will be hosting a coffee morning and selling books for the cause from 9am, but have many more plans in store. The business is also backing the Brave the Shave initiative with the branch’s three male colleagues either having their head shaved or getting their back waxed.
• Staff at TrueGents Barbers in Bucklersbury, Hitchin, will be putting down their scissors for mugs from 9am.
• The Knit and Natter weekly meet at Stevenage’s St Nicholas Community Centre in Canterbury Way will be turned into a coffee morning for the cause from 9.30am, with two special guests – Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland and Muggy the Macmillan mascot – expected to join them at about 11am.
• Brewery Tea Rooms in Walkern High Street has a Wild West-themed event running all day from 9.30am, raising funds for both Macmillan and Stevenage-based Cancer Hair Care.
• Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland and town mayor John Lloyd will both be backing Broom Barns Community Primary School’s coffee morning fundraiser, which runs from 9.30am to 10.30am.
• The coffee morning held at Benslow Music Trust in Benslow Lane, Hitchin, will be even more poignant this year after the death of colleague Jo Williams last month after a long and brave fight with cancer. Jo had previously always organised the fundraiser so this year’s event, which runs from 10am to 2pm, will be in her memory.
• Farrowby Farm in New Inn Road, Hinxworth, is organising an event for the second year running after Rhea Stephenson and her aunt Beverly Burrows were both diagnosed with breast cancer within a day of each other in 2016. Their ‘Macmillan Day’ runs from 10am until 4pm and includes art and craft stalls, a bouncy castle and face painting.
• Churchill Retirement Living’s Astonia Lodge in Pound Avenue, Stevenage, will be having coffee, cakes and biscuits in the owners’ lounge from 10am – with £5 donated to Macmillan for every visitor who attends.
• Accountants Robert A Harris & Co host a fundraiser at the Stevenage Business & Technology Centre in Bessemer Drive from 10am to 12 noon, which the public are invited to attend.
• Estate agent Satchells is encouraging people to visit its Brand Street branch in Hitchin for a slice of cake – or two – and a coffee from 10am to support the charity.
• All are welcome to the fundraiser at Walsworth Road Baptist Church in Hitchin from 10am to 12.30pm.
• CareShield – based above the Comet offices at Bank House in Stevenage’s Primett Road – is holding a fundraiser from 10am to 12 noon.
• Funeral directors Shires is hosting a coffee morning at Baldock’s United Reformed Church in Whitehorse Street from 10am.
• Mary Gibbons is organising Mary’s Macmillan Morning at Avenue Park Sports Club in West Avenue, Baldock, from 10am – just follow the balloons.
• Mill End Plants will be selling a hot drink and cake for £3 at its tea room in Mill End, Rushden, between 10am and 4pm, as well as hosting a raffle and cake stall.
• Nationwide’s Hitchin branch will be holding an event in Market Place from 10.30am.
• There will be live music, children’s activities and a raffle, plus homemade cakes, tea and coffee in The Wynd, Letchworth, between 10.30am to 1pm. All welcome.
• Just for Women Stevenage is organising a coffee morning open to the public from 10.30am to 2.30pm at the gym, based at Unit 1&2 in the town’s Wedgwood Way.
• The Community Care Hub in Station Road, Letchworth, has a 50s theme for its 11am to 3pm fundraiser and is encouraging the public to dress for the decade while enjoying music and cakes.
• Herts of Love choir is organising a gospel workshop at Stevenage’s Gordon Craig Theatre in Lytton Way from 7pm to 9.30pm while raising funds for Macmillan. To register type ‘Macmillan Gospel Workshop’ in the search for events and categories box on eventbrite.co.uk.
Saturday, October 1
• Herts of Love choir is following up the workshop by hosting and singing at a coffee morning in Stevenage town centre between 10am and 2pm, with those who attended the night before encouraged to join in. Volunteers are also needed to help deliver drinks from a nearby café to people who will sit at tables in the Town Square. Email hertsoflove@hotmail.co.uk if you can help.
Sunday, October 2
• On top of its traditional Friday fundraiser, Brewery Tea Rooms in Walkern High Street has teamed up with Stevenage-based Cancer Hair Care and Macmillan to host ‘expresso’ and ‘full coffee’ bike rides of 20km and 50km respectively. Cyclists will set off at 9.45am and there is still time to enter. There will also be coffee, cake, stalls and a raffle at Brewery Tea Rooms, and face painting, craft stalls and children’s bike events at Walkern Primary School led by Walkern Revolution Cycling Club and supported by Stevenage and North Herts CTC. To sign up for the ride visit www.cancerhaircare.com.
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