Concorde Quizing

Supporters of Sophie's Appeal were able to get away from the Christmas Television for an evening of Quizzing at the Concorde Club.

Quizzers had a choice of supper and several rounds of questioning with enough to blow the winter cobwebs away.

Thank you to all who attended and helped to raise over £400.00 on the night.

Thanks also to All at the Concorde Club for your continued support.

Body Shop Exclusive!

Ali and her team at The Body Shop, Winchester held an exclusive shopping evening in aid of Sophie's Appeal in the run up to Christmas.

Guests were treated to a pamper session, nibbles and drinks and on opportunity to shop with up to 20% discount.

Giving Tree Assembly

The parents, pupils and friends of Norwood School past and present came together once again to learn about the meaning of Christmas and to give presents to poorly children at Southampton and Winchester Hospitals over Christmas.

The Assembly was led by Headmaster Tim O'Brien.  A huge thank you to must go out all of the parents, children and teaching staff at Norwood for helping collect nearly 200 presents to help put smiles on the faces of children in hospital over Christmas.

Christmas in Eastleigh

Sophie's Appeal had a stall in the street market on lead up to the turning on of the Christmas lights in Eastleigh this year.

Thanks to all of your support and we hope you enjoyed your day.

Quizical Fun draising

Generous geniuses turned out once again to test their knowledge at our latest quiz at Fleming Park Bowling Club.

Over £700 was raised on the night.  Thank you one and all.

A Night at the Races

A night at the Races at Fleming Park Bowling Club proved a huge success and raised £1058.38 for Sophie's Appeal.

Our sincere thanks goes to our Sponsors
Eco-Carcare, SBS Ltd, Holiday Inn ,Eastleigh, Hamilton Parker Buckingham, Falconhigh, Hampshire Field Fencing, Cafe Rouge Express and Rich Martin Plastering.

Thanks to all who attended enjoyed the flutter and won!
Many thanks for your generous support.

Bishopstoke Carnival

Penny and Sue spent an enjoyable day at at the Bishopstoke Carnival. Despite the appalling weather there were still plenty of people there to support Sophie's Appeal and the tombola stall was once again very popular.

What great team spirit!

Body Shop Opens for Sophie's Appeal

Charity Patron, Sarah Beattie was pleased to be asked to open the newly refurbished Winchester Body Shop.

Customers to the store were able to browse the new displays, learn a little about Sophie's Appeal and support the Appeal by spurring on Ben is his eye watering leg waxing charity collection.

Over £260 was raised on the day and our thanks go to Alison and the team for chosing to support Sophie's Appeal

Vintage Fun at the Ageas Bowl

Sophie’s Appeal was pleased to hold a stall at the Yellow Vintage Fair, held at the Ageas Bowl (home of the Hampshire Cricket team).

Visitors were to able familiarise themselves with the work of Sophie’s Appeal, while the younger visitors tried their hand at Hook a Duck , and guess the name of the Polar Bear, before rain stopped play!

Milk Bottle Tops Collection

The Holiday Inn, Eastleigh continues to collect plastic milk bottle tops and the sorters and packers have just bagged their 4th ton. That is enough milk bottle tops to fill the entire ground floor of an average 4 bedroom house from floor to ceiling!

The milk bottle tops that you collect are sorted by our volunteers to ensure that we only retain suitable tops. These are then recycled and the plastic is used to make items such as children's garden slides and other garden furniture.

If you would like to collect washed milk bottle tops with the kite mark 2, please drop at any of the following collection points:-

Holiday Inn, Leigh Road, Eastleigh
Sainsbury's Store, Eastleigh
Cafe Rouge Express, Southampton

For further information about our recycling scheme, please contact edwina.martin@ihg.com

Cherbourg FC Summer Fundraiser

The 8th Annual Six-a-side Tournament took place on the 20th July 2013. In stark contrast to last year the sun shone all day. New entrants AFC Bishopstoke lifted the Winner's Trophy in the senior section beating AFC Spirit in the final. Fleming Legends won the junior final with Ze Germans taking the Runners up Trophy.

Our thanks go to the officials of the d
ay and to Crestwood College for the use of their facilities.

Nick's London Jaunt

Nick Hall ran the British 10K London road race in sweltering heat recently in support of Sophie's Appeal.

Nick said,

'I want to get back into running and what better way than to raise money for a charity in memory of a special little girl who was close to my late fathers heart.'

Nick completed the race in a creditable 1 hour 15 minutes.

3 Fire Fighters Cycle from Southampton to Edinburgh in a Day

Three Fire Fighters from Southampton Airport recently took on a challenge to cycle for 999 minutes in aid of two charities; the Fire Fighters Charity and Sophie's Appeal.

Mark Beaudro, Louis Kirchell and Jack Bambrook cycled in hour long relays at an average of over 30km per hour. The team covered a distance equivalent to a journey from Southampton Airport to Edinburgh Airport in the 16 hours and 39 minutes event. Generous donations and moral support from both customers and staff at the airport spurred the team on to complete their task with Mitchell's Restaurant ensuring they were refuelled regularly on their journey!

Over £900.00 was raised from supporters donations and the Airport's own Communities Trust.

Misfits plus Mike Conquer 3-Peaks to Raise over £2400

Six plucky ladies hatched a plan to raise as much money as possible for charity whilst challenging themselves to the limit taking on the three highest peaks in the UK in just 24 hours.

Following six months of planning and training, one of the team had to retire due to injury and last minute replacement, Mike Glen, stepped up to the plate. The team climbed Ben Nevis (1344m), Scafell Pike (978m) and Snowdon (1085m) just in the nick of time with a yet to be verified 23 hours and 59 minutes!

Well done and huge thanks to all the team: Hayley Richardson, Mandy Grinyer, Kerry Hyde, Tracy Griffiths, Donna Wainwright, Mike Glen and support driver Marie Pennington. Thanks also go to Southampton Airport for sponsoring the transport.

Sophie's Appeal 10th Anniversary Ball raises over £10,000 to help sick children

Sophie's Appeal supporters have raised in excess of £10,000 at the charity's 10th Anniversary Masquerade Ball. The major fundraising event was held at the Concorde Club in Eastleigh and welcomed around 250 guests including charity patrons Sarah & James Beattie.

The fun packed evening included Caricaturist David Hensley, Magician Wayne 'The Wierd', bellydancing by Rebekah and Hipnotise and a special surprise performance by Britain's Got Talent's "Popping Ron" (pictured)

Lin Barringer, Sophie's mum and charity co-founder, commented,

"2013 marks 10 years since Sophie was diagnosed with Wilm's Disease, and was when Mike and I originally decided to set up the charity to help others. In the last decade the charity has raised well over £320,000 which has gone on to help literally thousands of sick children and their families. The 10th Anniversary Ball has been a huge success and we'd like to thank everyone for their committed support yet again. The £10,000 raised is enough to fund 40 families for respite care in the New Forest, or 4 dream family holidays for terminally ill children"

Co-Operative Support

Sophie's Appeal recently benefited from a grant from the Southern Co-Operative Community Fund.

The grant has been used to replace an ageing printer and to purchase publishing software to enable us to bring much of our printing requirements in house, driving down administration costs.

The cost savings mean that even more of your donations go to directly support the sick children we set out to help.

Holiday Inn Eastleigh raises £800.00 at May Fete

Staff at the Holiday Inn organised a Spring Fete to raise funds for both Sophie's Appeal and Shelter in a Storm. The monies raised were divided between the two charities.

Families enjoyed the afternoon whilst listening to the wonderful sounds of Crestwood Steel Band. The younger visitors enjoyed traditional games - hook a duck, tin can alley, lucky dips to name but a few while the adults tried their luck at the Wine Bottle Game, Tombola and raffle. Stalls included homemade cakes, preserves and pickles, plants and books. Visits to the Fire Engine and Ambulance proved extremely popular.

Sophie's Appeal would like to extend their gratitude for the continued support from the management and staff at the Holiday Inn Eastleigh.

Buckets of Cash at Asda, Chandlers Ford

Over £350 was raised from Bucket Shaking in Asda, Chandlers Ford!A   huge thank you to the generous shoppers Sunday 3rd March, who have helped us to raise over £350 by giving their change to Sophie's Appeal.

The fundraising committee were at the local Asda Hypermarket between 10am and 4pm to shake their buckets on what would have been Sophie's 15th birthday!

£5000 Holiday Donation

Thanks to the generous support of the local businesses, the community and all those who support Sophie's Appeal we have recently donated £5000 to Beyond the Moon.

Beyond the Moon organise carefree holidays for children with life threatening illnesses. They sent Sophie to Disneyland, Paris and the memories and carefree times it gave us will last us a lifetime. That is why Sophie's Appeal are proud to support this organisation.

Pascale Somers, co-founder of Beyond the Moon said "On behalf of Beyond the Moon, I sincerely would like to thank you for the generous donation that we received. It will enable us to offer more British families with a sick child a carefree and memorable Beyond the Moon vacation. We look forward to sending you feedback and to informing you about the families that you will make happy in 2013."

The money that you raise and we donate is used to send local children on a holiday of a lifetime.

New Tesco Express Supports Sophie's Appeal

Sophie's Appeal Founder, Lin Barringer and veteran Saints footballer Francis Benali were the guests of honour when the new Tesco Express store on Bishopstoke Road recently opened and were invited to cut a ribbon and declare the new store officially open.

As part of the opening celebrations, store manager, Darren Wheeler and his team presented Sophie's Appeal with a cheque for £500.

Darren said: "We are delighted to be able to support Sophie's Appeal, as it does such fantastic work for those living in the Eastleigh community. We are so pleased that Lin and Francis came to open the new store and join in the celebrations with us."

The store chose to donate to Sophie's Appeal as part of its commitment to supporting the local community.