Cloughmills '“ an 'amazing place!'

Representatives from SANDS - the stillbirth and neonatal death charity – were at the Millside Restaurant in the village on Monday last to accept a cheque from Nicola Lorimer whose family and friends raised the amount from the May Day event. They had canvassed family, friends and residents for sponsorship and the response was overwhelming.

Nicola described the total as a tribute to the community’s generosity and, in particular, management and staff at Wrightbus in Ballymena, who also contributed £2,799 in lieu of flowers for the Comfort of Children Paediatric Unit at Antrim Hospital when she suffered a family tragedy earlier this year.

Nicola said: “We cannot praise enough all those who donated to our charity. Everyone worked hard to get sponsorship and to raise £7450 is brilliant. We thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for what they have done.”

Steven Guy, the network co-ordinator for SANDs and his colleague, Claire Charles, accepted the cheque from Nicola who was accompanied by some of those who took part in the marathon. They expressed gratitude that their charity had been chosen and said the money would greatly assist their work.

When told that several days earlier another donation in excess of £5000 had been made to the Children’s Cancer Unit at the Royal Victorial Hospital from a variety of events including the marathon, Claire Sands commented: “Cloughmills must be an amazing place when all this money has been donated.”

Nicola, her family and friends have pledged to continue raising funds for children’s charities and will shortly be getting together to discuss who next will benefit.