Southampton Airport Summer Solstice Sprint Raises Over £3500

Over 300 people took part in a 5km fun run this morning along the runway at Southampton Airport.

Kevin Montgomery, airport fire service station manager and co-organiser of the event added: “It was an early start but a fantastic way to welcome dawn on the longest day of the year – running along our runway. We were delighted to see so many enthusiastic supporters turning out at 6am and really enjoying themselves for this charity event”

Event Organiser Mike Barringer, chairman and trustee of Sophie’s Appeal – and Airside Operations Duty Officer at Southampton Airport, added: “We are so grateful to Southampton Airport for giving us and our supporters an opportunity that very few people will ever experience; the chance to run on the runway Southampton Airport.

“We have enjoyed fantastic support from Southampton Airport and its staff over the last ten years and the money raised from this event will make a huge difference to the lives of many local children battling or recovering from life threatening illnesses.”

The prizes for the fastest individuals went to Pete Sansome from Bishopstoke (Fastest Male), Karen Andrews from Hedge End (Fastest Female) and Sophie Jones from Chandlers Ford (Fastest Junior – aged 12). Darren Phillips of Eastleigh won the Best Dressed Individual award, braving the chilly morning in a skimpy Native American outfit.

More photos are available from our photographer Sharon Merredew Photography

Black and White Summer Ball

Nearly 200 people enjoyed an evening of entertainment at Sophie’s Appeal’s Black and White Ball at the Novotel, Southampton.  Over £11,000 was raised on the night.

Mike Osman, MC entertained the guests with his unique sense of humour throughout the evening.  Local magician Mike Brown also wowed the guests with his close up magic.  Music from Top Draw, who donated their fee back to Sophie’s Appeal, kept the dance floor full until the early hours.

Our thanks go to everyone who supported this event; those behind the scenes who helped run a fantastic evening, our entertainers, sponsors and donors and to you for your much needed support of Sophie’s Appeal!

For some pictures of the event, please visit our photographers sites:

Kerton Photographic
Megan Scanlan Photography

Quizical Evening Raises over £500

Friends and supporters of Sophie’s Appeal joined our Patrons, James and Sarah Beattie, at our Spring Quiz held at Fleming Park Bowls Club.

Our quiz master, Paul, tested the teams knowledge with 8 rounds of brain bashing and the raffle was well supported.

The evening was hotly contested with the winners being decided by a penalty quiz off with ‘The Don’t Knows’ pipping our reigning champions ‘The Sherbert Lemons’ to the title.

At the other end of the table it was also close with ‘The Shy Teds’ narrowly beating ‘ The Gannetts minus one’ and ‘The Twits’ to the Wooden Spoon.

Thank you to everyone who supported the evening raising over £500 and helping put smiles onto more poorly children’s faces.

Eastleigh Christmas Lights up Appeal!

A huge thankyou to Lin Barringer, Julie and Bethany Armstrong.

Having put up with a wet start they were soon making new friends and bumping into old at the Christmas Lights switch on street market in Eastleigh.

The girls promoted the charity whilst helping raise £211.71 on their stall. With donations from Sophie's supporters the tombola was a huge success!

Thanks to fabulous support from the community and the generous donors, you know who you are!

Mike's Great South Run 2014

Airport Support - from left John Foskett, Hayley Richardson,

Mike Barringer and Jim McIntosh

Earlier this year, Mike was challenged to take part in the Bupa Great South Run in Portsmouth.

With the help of friend, Hayley Richardson, Mike pounded the streets of Eastleigh whilst shedding the pounds in preparation for the run.

Come race day, he still hadn't made the 10 mile mark but, having lost over 3.5 stone was as ready as ever.  The weather was ideal for the run and surrounded by friends and colleagues from the Southampton Airport and with the knowledge that so many supporters of Sophie's Appeal had sponsored him to complete the challenge there was just a small matter of 10 miles ahead!

He thinks it's all over...

Mike completed the run in just over 1 hour and 51 minutes and thanks to the generosity of his supporters raised over £500 for the charity.

Thanks Mike...what's next?

If you wish to support Sophie's Appeal and would like to donate, Mike's Just Giving page is still open.  Just click here 

Sun Shines on Bishopstoke Carnival 2014

The beautiful weather and the generous crowds visiting our stall at the Bishopstoke Carnival on Glebe Meadow made ourtombola a tremendous success.

Thanks go to Sue who organises our stall every year and also to Lin and Penny for helping on the day.  They raised £146 and were left with an almost empty table!

Of course none of it would have been possible without the most important ingredient...you!  Thanks to all who visited our stall and made the day such a success.

Sophie's Appeal Annual Summer Ball

What an amazing night we had at our annual Sophie's Appeal Summer Ball.

With entertainment from Mike Brown our fantastic table magician, talented young saxophonist Callan Jones, the Spitfire Sisters and fabulous dance from the girls at Parkwood School of Dance our guests were entertained throughout.

A big thankyou to Russell Parker our loyal master of ceremonies, the committee who worked tirelessly on the night and finally thank you all for coming, supporting Sophie's Appeal, and helping us raise in excess of £6500.

For a selection of photos from the evening, courtesy of Megan Scanlan, click here

Here Come the Girls

Thank you to everyone who came to our 'Here come the girls' evening at the Fleming Park Bowling Club.

Over £500 was raised!

Thanks also to all the stall holders, helpers and fundraising team for a lovely evening.

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.

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!

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.