I am sorry at the long ‘silence’ on our website blogs, but the whole of this past year, as for many other charities, has been very difficult to keep on track in particular with our major fundraising programme.

Our year of events and bookings had been planned in January/February 2020, but then of course the dreadful worldwide pandemic very quickly meant complete shut down for everyone in every country. Nothing could be done about it, it was what it was. We had to wait, like so many others, to see what would happen.

Very thankfully, we were amazingly able to bank a sum of money every single week, which was a miracle in itself. We had many wonderful supporters donating items to sell and gifts of money. Then the incredible Corinne Cunningham came along making Face Masks; the staggering amount raised over the months of lock down came to £19,000! Then we were amazingly given £10,000 from The Fishmongers Company in London which was absolutely mind blowing!

Where are we now?

As I write this out, we are all very much hoping and looking forward to normality returning hopefully in three months time. The Vaccination programme has been rolling out for sometime now, and we will, no doubt, establish our ‘new normal’ and be able to take up the reins of our fundraising programme once again. I have lots of ideas…..so watch this space!!

Planning Permission Update

I am sure some of you must be wondering about our much hoped for and yet very elusive Planning Permission?! Come July this year, 2021, we shall have been waiting for it for two years! It is very frustrating indeed!

As it stands today, March 2021, everything so far has been passed, except issues with Oxfordshire County Council Highways. We have been brought to a complete standstill by that department. We are now having to bring in an Independent Road Safety Officer to complete an audit. Not having that piece of paper in our hands means that we still cannot approach any Trusts or Foundations for grants. Please do pray for a quick, smooth and safe solution, so that we can move on!