Sale trail, coffee mornings and quiz nights help to raise £900 for My WiSH charity

People took part in a sale trail, coffee mornings and quiz nights in a bid to raise money for charity.

And after all the money had been counted a total of £900 was raised for the My WiSH Charity, which supports the West Suffolk Hospital.

It’s come from the efforts of Bury St Edmunds mother-of-five Roxana Carroll who organised the events.

She had the traumatic experience of her fifth child Joseph being born two months prematurely weighing in at just 2lb 8ozs.

And because of what she describes as the “wonderful” care she received at the hospital she decided to raise the money for the neonatal unit.

The sale trail was held near her home on the Horringer estate in Kelso Road, while the coffee mornings and quiz nights were held at St Edmunds Church, in Westgate Street. The Poundland store in the town centre also helped out with collection tins in store.

Joseph was born on March 18 by caesarean section at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, and was transferred to the West Suffolk before being released on Roxana’s birthday April 14 weighing 3lb 14ozs.

He was taken home to be with his father Ian, 45, a former serviceman based at RAF Honington and now a transport manager, and their four other children Lochlann, 19, Mattie, 16, Annie, 11, and Rebecca, nine.

But it was the care and support that Roxana received at the West Suffolk which she has now repaid.

The 46-year-old said: “It is such a homely environment in there and they were just wonderful and I cannot thank them enough. I know I am a mother of five but when something like a premature birth takes place you seem lost but they made everything seem much better. They were marvellous and I wanted to try and repay them back in some way.”

And Roxana also paid tribute to the many people living near her who supported her sale trail.

“I want to thank everyone who helped to raise the money in the Kelso Road and Glastonbury Road area giving me somewhere to put the stalls, they were just wonderful. And also the members of the church for being so generous.”

Pictured above at the West Suffolk Hospital are Roxana Carroll with her three-year-old son Joseph, along with Kathy May (neonatal practice development nurse), Katie Neilson (senior staff nurse) and Barbara Wilson, receptionist.