News:- Multiple Sclerosis News Surrey

Not one but two of our volunteers have now been awarded the prestigious ‘Order of Mercy’, by the ‘League of Mercy’.

Click to Enlarge the Image.

In 2017, John Hambly had the award bestowed upon him. Now it is the turn of another long-standing volunteer Carol Kitching who recently visited  the Mansion House to receive her own ‘Order of Mercy’ presented to her at an annual award ceremony where 50 or sometimes fewer deserving volunteers are recognised for their outstanding achievements.

Founded some 120 years ago by the Prince of Wales and established by Royal Charter of Queen Victoria, the ‘League of Mercy’ first had its roots in recruiting volunteers to assist the sick and vulnerable. It was later disbanded in 1947 with the advent of the NHS, only to be re-established in 1999 some 100 years after it was first formed. Today, it exists to recognise and reward long-standing volunteers who give their time to communities within the UK for charitable purpose.

The League of Mercy believes that it is vital to recognise and honour the work of volunteers. By doing so they feel will develop public awareness of the work of volunteers and encourage others to join them in giving up their time to the voluntary care of those in need.

Carol, as our members are aware has been a Samson Centre volunteer for 12 years and in that time, she has volunteered her valuable time in the office and also made copious cups of tea and coffee for members and visitors alike. Carol has been involved with many fundraising activities for the Centre, but one notable activity has raised over £100,000 alone and that is her organisation of Street Collections. Carol has  a listening ear, a warm and generous personality and a smile that has and continues to inspire and encourage all around her.

On that note we would like to congratulate Carol Kitching and thank her on behalf of everyone at the Samson Centre for her time, past, present and continued support.

A huge shout out to Sam Smith for organising an Assault Course event for us that took place on Saturday at Henfold Lakes near Dorking.

21 brave souls got very muddy, tackled various obstacles and had a great afternoon in the process!

An amazing £2800 has been raised for the Samson Centre. Thank you so much to Sam (who also took part herself) and everyone else who took part and helped raise such a great sum.

Huge congratulations to Steve Duckworth for completing the London Marathon on Sunday in a great time of 4 hours and 5 minutes. Steve has raised close to £3000 so far for the Centre which is hugely appreciated by all at the Samson Centre for MS.

We now hope that Steve is recovering well from his mammoth feat!

Many thanks to the Surrey Association of Woodturners for presenting a cheque for the Samson Centre

recently at one of their evening meetings in Mytchett. They raised a very nice £385 for the Centre.

Much appreciated by all of us.

Steven and Natasha from RSM in Guildford came in to present us with just under £5000!

They had many runners taking part in the Surrey Half Marathon on behalf of the Samson Centre for MS and also took on additional fundraising in their offices such as cake sales, sponsoring the runners etc.

Thank you so much RSM for supporting us – we are really grateful for what you have done.

James Bannister bravely completed the Brighton Marathon on Sunday in an amazing 4 hours 12 minutes in memory of his Dad, Robin Bannister

James’s dad was a much loved member of the Samson Centre for MS.

If you are able to donate to James’ online page, please go to virginmoneygiving.com/JamesBannister2

then click on Running the Brighton Marathon

Thank you so much James for running for us and in memory of your lovely Dad.

We had some amazing runners from RSM in Guildford take part in the Surrey Half Marathon on Sunday.

Despite very windy conditions, they all completed the race and raised an amazing £3500 for the Centre in the process!

Thanks so much to RSM for supporting us and also to Steven Boys who put our name forward as a possible charity for them to support. We are really grateful for what you have done.

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Thanks so much to Sam for running a great Bingo night on Friday along with her helpers, Ethan, Cerys and Archie.

We had 26 people attend instead of the 46 expected due to the nasty weather conditions. However, this did not stop us still raising a very healthy £665 for the Centre on the evening! Thanks again Sam for organising and running such a fun evening for us – you did a brilliant job.

Lily Porter has raised a brilliant £1562.67 for the Samson Centre for MS by climbing to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro earlier this month. 8 days of really hard climbing – what an amazing achievement! Lily – you are a star! See her story at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LilyPorter3

One year and 1,000,000 metres of indoor rowing later….

…what a challenge…but for Chris Boys our volunteer gym manager, known to many of us, it is even more amazing as he lives with MS.

At the beginning of the year he wanted to embark on something to raise valuable funds for the Samson Centre. Now, 1,000,000 metres later he has finally rowed across the finishing line. Read More in our latest Newsletter

He has raised over £1150 and the total is still rising. Help by donating more Now- click here and go to Chris’s Fundraising Page Online.

Thank you so much to those of you who came along to our Xmas Fair on Saturday in Milford village hall.

A great team of helpers made this all possible and we raised a very healthy £2300 for the Centre.

We expect this amount to increase further over the next couple of days when we sell off some of the outstanding goodies at the Centre.

Many thanks again to everyone who supported the Fair in any way, by attending, donating items, buying raffle tickets, volunteering on the day, counting the proceeds and of course a big thank you to our very own Santa, Chris!

These lovely ladies in yellow from Cranleigh Sunflowers running club came in today to present us a cheque for £1200!

They have raised the money over the past year by Pam hosting a coffee morning, Anne running in the Edinburgh Marathon, knitting goodies, to name but a few.

There was an additional £400 on top of the cheque given to us today so these amazing ladies have raised over £1600 for the Centre.

Thank you so much for supporting us.

Photos of our volunteers and attendees.

At the recent award ceremony for the Queens Award for Voluntary Service.

A lovely afternoon for our volunteers recently when the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Michael More-Molyneux presented the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to Gilly and Jim on behalf of all our amazing volunteers.

We could not run the Centre without our very loyal volunteers and it was so lovely to get recognition for them via this very prestigious award.

Follow the links for background information on the award.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen’s_Award_for_Voluntary_Service

.http://www.surreylieutenancy.org/HMlordlieutenant.html