What an amazing afternoon we had on Saturday! Thank you to everyone who contributed or attended.
It was a busy few days on the run up to the event, finalising numbers and ensuring we had everything we needed. Lots of people donated bottle bags and bottles or lent us cake stands …many thanks. If your cake stand doesn’t come back to you soon, please let us know and we’ll make sure it does ?
St Mark’s Church allowed us to use the church hall at low cost and arranged to give us the key on the afternoon. Many thanks to Ruth and St Mark’s for supporting us. It took a little over an hour for our hardworking team to get the room set up and ready for guests.
Niamh, Connor, Sophie, Callum, Glenda, Sharon, Lauren and Karen did an amazing job to get everything in place to welcome 80 guests for afternoon tea. Thank you to you all ?
Sharon was our “creative director” and prepared the lovely tea shop style table decorations. Thank you so much Sharon ?
We also had a glass of fizz available to those who wanted it ?
Meanwhile Heather and Nick has already put in several hours preparing a delicious afternoon tea, with a range of dietary needs catered for. They continued their hard work in the hall kitchen, including arranging all our many borrowed cake stands! Thank you so much Heather and Nick …you guys are awesome! ?
A couple of friends offered to run stalls at the tea party …thank you to Sheila, Emily, Gemma and Gemma’s lovely mum (apologies, I didn’t get your name!). Thank you also to Beth who came along to help. Both stalls made some good sales and added funds to our total ?
It was soon 3.30 and our guests started to arrive. It was so lovely to see so many friends from all sorts of areas of my life and friends of my children too. I really am touched that you all wanted to come and support me.
I was planning to do some sort of speech during the tea party, but was a little bit of an emotional wreck, so decided against it! Some of this post has been written using the notes for my speech.
I want to thank my sister, Glenda, for coming to stay for the weekend, helping on the day, bringing her calmness and providing me with lots of support ?
A big thank you, also to my brother, Jimmy and his family, Gill, Anna and Zeb, who travelled from Herefordshire to help and to support the event. It was lovely to see you guys, though not for long enough this visit! ?
My lovely friend, Karen, was a fantastic help on the day in getting everything ready and making sure everyone got the right food. She also surprised me with a tree of messages which guests added to throughout the afternoon. The messages are now in an envelope to take with me and I will read them at some point when I’m in hospital. Thank you so much Karen ?
Thank you to each and every one of you who came along on the day, the kind people who donated, despite being unable to attend and also to the friends who planned to come but decided to stay away, when they felt a little unwell on the day, just in case I caught something ?
The afternoon tea was delicious and I received so many compliments to send to the chefs. Niamh and Sophie were a fantastic team, making sure everyone was fed and with the right food! Thank you all of you ?
We ran a bottle lucky dip stall, which was an amazing success and used only donated bottle bags and bottles. Connor and his great friend Finley, were in charge …thank you both ?
We perhaps should have thought about making this a little more child friendly, but I’m sure there were some happy grown ups who were able to enjoy the prizes won by their kids!
It was a very emotional day for me. I initially thought I’d avoid hand shakes, hugs and kisses in order to protect myself …as you probably noticed, that soon when out the window! I was touched by your kind words, messages and cards and really did feel lifted by all your encouragement.
There were a couple of noted absences …
My dear friend Anne who has been an amazing support over the last couple of years, was needed somewhere else and was very much missed. Thank you to her family members who still came along ?
Another friend, Glynis, was unable to make it and had the best ever excuse … on Wednesday after several years of illness and regular dialysis, she received a kidney transplant. She is recovering well, but not quite well enough for tea and cake just yet! Get well soon, Glynis ?
Clearing up was thankfully much quicker than setting up and we were soon on our way home. It has taken me a couple of days to recover (which is why this update wasn’t posted sooner!). Thankfully, Glenda is a maths wiz and was able to count the cash and do the sums. Amazingly we made a grand total of …
How amazing! Thank you to everyone mentioned above, everyone who came along, donated or supported us in any way. I really am blessed ??
Obviously I am now up to my ears in finalising travel plans, packing and preparing. There has been a lot going on with that too, but I’ll save it for another post.