Our 2023 Spring Lunch in Theydon Bois raised £1,441 – over £200 more than last year, and a great success!
Epping Town Mayor Barbara Scruton came to the Lunch. After enjoying a meal and a tour round the stalls, she met Nicole Rich (Director of West Essex Community Health Services) with her colleagues Cherry Heath and Sandra Owen – who had all come to help the League Friends committee run the event.
Seamus Setterfield of Daniel Robinson Funeral Services is a great supporter of the Friends of St. Margaret’s. He regularly donates prizes for our raffles and tombolas at fund-raising events. For the Spring Lunch, he presented a splendid hamper of goodies to a member of our fundraising team.
In the autumn a tree was planted in the gardens behind The Epping Forest Unit in memory of our Friend Di Collins. She was an energetic supporter of the former general hospital on the site. Di fought tirelessly to keep some hospital services there after the old buildings were demolished, working to achieve the planning and building of the Epping Forest Unit in 2007.
A weeping cherry, it is blooming for the first time at St. Margaret’s this spring.
Keeping nurses and patients happy
Like all NHS staff, the nurses in the Epping Forest Unit and Mental Health Units at St.Margaret’s have been feeling the pressure of the past few years. The Friends committee agreed to help raise the spirits of both staff and patients at the time of the Coronation of King Charles. £150 was given to buy bunting for each ward – and for refreshments to celebrate the special day.