Hi readers,

It’s us again, Emily and William, taking fundraising again, as there’s more to tell!

Two weeks last Sunday, we took part in an outdoor fundraising event. We woke with a heavy heart as we looked outside and saw rain coming down. Luckily, the weather improved during the day, so by the time the event started early afternoon, the sun was out. In fact, some people were getting too hot!

What did we do? Well, we were invited to make use of MP Richard Drax’s estate (behind the wall) for the afternoon, to see if we could raise some funds for the Friendship Club by selling teas and coffee, cakes, crafts and running a tombola. A member of staff, Lisa, worked really hard to organise it with an amazing team of volunteers. Everyone put so much into it, and it felt like we were all naturals!

The most incredible thing was how many people turned up on the day and how much we raised, more than any other charity who’ve also used the grounds. We are so pleased.

What was also good was that it was fun, and we met lots of new really nice people, and even maybe some new members for the Friendship Club. Thank you to Lisa, Richard Drax and both their teams.

We’d also like to say a huge thank you to Debbie Ward, Catherine Bolado (formely of the Echo), Matt Prosser, Steve Mackenzie and Andrew Flockhart, for giving up their day to run the Weymouth Half Marathon for the Friendship Club last Sunday too. We really appreciate their support, and their fundraising efforts. We hope they will come along to a Friendship Club event, so some of us members can thank them properly. We’d also like to know more about what they do too.

* The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset