Sponsored by
Youth’s lucky
13 for charity
CHEQUE: With his cheque for �550 for Alzheimer's Society is Calum England, 13, with dementia support manager Amanda Stevens and Calum's grandparents Sheila and Robert Carse. (BUY THIS PHOTO L7061TS) Picture: Tony Saxton
IT WAS lucky 13 for two district charities when young Calum England decided to dedicate his birthday to raising charity cash.
Calum, who turned 13 last week, had recently found out that his grandad Robert Carse had been diagnosed with vascular dementia.
When he was asked what he wanted to do on his first day as a teenager, he told mum Alison he wanted to raise some cash for the charities that were helping his grandfather.
And Calum’s selflessness didn’t end there – as part of fundraising day the family organised, he volunteered to sit on a dunking stool and get soaked to bring in the cash!
“I don’t how many times he went in the water,” said Alison. “We stopped counting at 80. We were very lucky to have been loaned the dunking stool, but I think it turned out to be a bit easier than we thought because nearly everyone gave him a soaking!
“Usually Calum would have had a sleepover or a day out with his friends on his birthday, but when we asked him this year he said, ‘I want to do something for my granddad’. It’s extraordinary that someone so young would have the foresight to do that. We all very proud of him.”
Calum’s charity day was held at the Red Lion in Hambleton
Alison said: “Everyone rallied round on the day to make the day a success – we’d like to thank everyone who donated funds or raffle prizes, all the family members who got stuck in on the day to run the event and Bri and Backy at the Red Lion for letting us use it as a venue.”
The day raised £1,200 which was split between the Selby Companions Association and the Alzheimer’s Society.
Ju Lee, community fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We are over the moon that Calum has raised such a super amount for the Society. It is brilliant that someone so young has put so much effort into raising money to go towards supporting people living with dementia.
“We hope that he has now dried out after the repeated dunking! We would also love him to not only continue fund-raising and spreading the word about the work of the Society – it would be great to get more young people involved in our fund-raising as many, like Calum, have a relation who is affected by dementia.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Selby
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 6 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 6 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 26 mph
Wind direction: North east
