Awards Night 2008 with Martyn Lewis

Martyn Lewis has been very closely involved with the hospice movement for over 20 years and is a Vice President of Help the Hospices, President of United Response (a charity supporting people with learning difficulties) and Chairman of Youthnet.

Martyn, introduced by our Hospice Chairman, Lady Pilkington, gave a very amusing account of his career with ITV and the BBC. He gave us a facinating account of many of his most memorable moments including delivering the news late in the night as anchorman for the BBC, of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 .

Neil Wright, Willowbrook Chief Executive, proposed the vote of thanks to Martyn for donating us his time to give us a very entertaining talk. He also thanked Helen Boyer, who had been Willowbrook Hospice's Volunteer Co-ordinator for over 10 years, for all her hard work and support and then introduced Ian Turnbull, the new Volunteer Co-ordinator, who has recently taken up his role.

Martyn then presented the long serving awards to both volunteers and staff with a chance for photographs. This was then followed by a question and answer session, including a question from Veronica (not her real name!) asking Martyn what he was doing tomorrow night - Martyn’s response ‘come up and see me tomorrow’.

A great buffet was served, followed by a disco which was enjoyed by everyone until around 11:30. The successful evening was highly enjoyable with a good mix of volunteers and staff enjoying each others’ company.

Thanks should go to Neil Sutcliffe for leading off the karaoke as well as Anthony Thompson and the nurses who gave their all, and not least volunteer James Murphy who gave a fantastic performance of the Beatles classic a ‘Hard Day’s Night’.

Special thanks should go to Martyn Lewis, Terry Shields (disco) and the Greenall Club all of whom made no charge for their services, as well as Crumbs, the caterers, plus Nicky Saunders and Julie Garner from the Hospice Fundraising Team who pulled the whole event together.