Having suffered from the big “C”, and lost friends and family to the dreaded disease, we have for the past six or seven years, done what little we can to support charity that helps sufferers and their families.

Our friends introduced us to an annual Summer Luncheon, organised to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Over the years, there have been glorious sunny days & a couple of really wet days but whatever the weather the afternoon was always such fun. Pimms on arrival, chatting with friends old and new, a three course lunch followed by tea or coffee. And all raising money for a great charity.

The highlight of the meal, was always the dessert course. The lovely volunteers made a choice of around fifteen different desserts and everyone could have a piece of as many as they wished. No good for anyone watching their waistline!

A couple of years ago the group decided that after ten years, it was now becoming too much for them to organise and asked my friend if she would be willing to take over the luncheon.

Once she had found a large enough group of other willing helpers, she gladly accepted the challenge. Last year, being our first year, was  just that, a challenge! We weren’t sure how to cater for the 42 people who had given their donation and were joining us on the day. Although we got through it, and everyone was fed, and had a good time, we were all exhausted and secretly wondered what we had taken on.

However we were also elated as we had raised almost £1000 and as at the time I was, only just, still working for HSBC, the Bank also matched what had been raised. Excellent result.

Before we knew it a year had passed and we were making preparations for another luncheon.  Meeting in May to discuss menus, who was willing to assist where and most importantly the date of the event. We were fortunate enough to have a couple of new volunteers this year and they became part of the main group of organisers.

Date set, menu decided, we had a further meeting as a taster evening to finalise recipes and discuss how the day would run. Food eaten, main ideas sorted, the men disappeared to watch England in the World Cup!

The lunch weekend arrived and we drafted in some of our happy band of volunteers to erect the marquee, collect the tables, chairs, crockery and cutlery on loan to us from the community hall. The table cloths and aprons ironed, we were all set for the big day. Just the food to prepare and desserts to make.

As the day dawned, there was a small team in the kitchen preparing the starters and salad. Another small team laying the tables and sorting the raffle. Balloons and banners being put up and the bar being prepared.

As our guests started to arrive we had a quick get together to finalise how the day would run, and then we were off.

Half an hour of pimms and chatter, greeting our guests, offering raffle tickets and everyone catching up with each other before we called them to be seated.

The day ran a lot smoother, we had divided into small groups, some taking orders and delivering them to the group manning (or womaning) the kitchen, a small troop of servers taking food out table by table. Then a final group of very hard workers, washing up as we cleared the tables.

We were extremely fortunate to have a couple of singers, who gave their time free of charge and offered two sessions of music and song.

Although we had reduced the number of desserts this year due to a lot of previous wastage, the dessert course was still the main event of the day, with pancakes, lemon roulade and banoffi pie being this years favourites.

We had been very lucky as the sun had shone all day and after tea and coffee, we had a couple of thank you speeches and announced that we had raised a staggering £1300. This year one of our new volunteers’ company SGN have kindly donated an additional £500.

We are also very grateful to our guests who put their hands in their pockets, each donating money for the meal and buying numerous raffle tickets.

It is a long, but incredibly enjoyable day and some of our guests remained in the garden enjoying the sun whilst we cleared the tables and finally got to eat some food ourselves, together with a small glass of wine to toast another successful year.