Choir presents £327 to Marie Curie charity

JULY 20: The choir has presented the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity with a cheque for £327, which it raised from singing in Caterham shopping mall four weeks before.   

Dave Bannister and Luisa Stephens with cheque

The cheque was handed to Luisa Stephens, the charity’s community fundraiser, by CMVC member Dave Bannister.  Luisa expressed her thanks for the choir’s contribution, adding: “We’d love you to sing for us again.”

The charity does remarkable work in providing end-of-life care for those with terminal illness, both in hospices and at home through their teams of dedicated nurses.  Caterham is the location of its south-east regional headquarters.

A thank-you note from the Marie Curie charity

For many years there was also a Marie Curie hospice in Caterham which had links with the choir. Dave Bannister's mum Jean spent many evenings there as a volunteer nurse.  Choir member Peter Gillman’s mother died there in November 1962. 

Lord Bernard Weatherill, speaker of the House of Commons and a Croydon MP, died there in May 2007.  The choir sang at his memorial service in Croydon Minster. Two years later his son Bernard invited the choir to sing at the wedding of his grand-daughter Julia at St Margaret’s, the "parliamentary church" close to Westminster Abbey.