Picnic in the park at Brandon helps to boost the funds of the My WiSH charity

Friends Loraine Skikunas and Julie Cowan organised a picnic in the park which was attended by 200 people and raised over £700.

The event was held at Brandon Country Park and included a raffle, a tombola, cake stalls and name the teddy game.

In total £753.10 was raised which was split between the My WiSH charity, which supports the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds, and St Nicholas Hospice Care.

Loraine, who lives in The Street, Brandon, and is a lunchtime supervisor at her daughter Poppy’s school Forest Academy, said the event was a “brilliant” occasion.

The money for the hospital will be targeted at the neonatal unit where her five-year-old daughter was treated after being born six weeks and five days prematurely and weighing just 4lb 13oz.

It will be used to go towards development care and sensory toys for the slightly older babies.

“We were really delighted with the turnout and we had lots of help from family and friends with all the raffle prizes that we had donated by businesses in Brandon along with family and friends. It was a really brilliant day,” said the 47-year-old.

And Julie, 42, who lives in Leamon Court, Brandon, and who works in one of the chip shops in the town, also had her daughter Maddie, five, five weeks prematurely weighing in at 3lb 2oz, and she attends the same school as Poppy.

“We put a lot of advertising on our Facebook pages plus the school’s Facebook site and with word of mouth we managed to get the numbers to the party … it was also the start of the school summer holidays which also helped,” added Loraine.

Pictured at the hospital with senior staff nurse Sarah Miller are, from left to right, Julie Cowan, and her daughter Maddie, and Loraine Skikunas with her daughter Poppy.

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