Fundraising

Fundraising Activities

Our charity members, supporters and volunteers run regular fundraising events throughout the year. If you would like to get involved or have an idea for a fundraising event, let us know.

Our Fundraisers

Although we are a relatively young charity, some of our founders have a very long history of supporting people affected by Parkinson’s in Northamptonshire.  Most importantly Val Hamblin was instrumental in helping Northants Parkinson’s People become a charity. Val had been the leading force of support locally for over thirty years, volunteering for a National Parkinson’s charity, running, as was then, the local Branch.  Val dedicated immeasurable time to support people affected by Parkinson’s and with her committed team raised thousands of pounds over those years for that charity. 

Val’s branch provided a dedicated, once a week day centre for people with advanced Parkinson’s. It was called the Tulip Group and Angela who provides our one-to-one support managed that day centre for several years.  Val’s branch also raised all of the money to pay for the first Parkinson’s Nurse in Northamptonshire for the first two years in post.  Some of you may remember Pete Smith. 

Knowing she had achieved all she could with the National Charity, Val retired and put her long standing and excellent reputation behind us instead, thus ensuring continued local support where we all believe it matters.

Every charity requires funds, especially to get going and in the early days we were very lucky to have financial support from Simon, one of our initial supporters, and his family. They raised funds for us from a family gathering. Thank you once again Simon for helping us to start Northants Parkinson’s People.  

Once we had our Charitable status, we then had a generous donation from Terry Cadby who joined Freemasonry in 2010 and is a member of the Lodge of Harmony No 9048 in the Province of Northampton & Huntingdonshire. Terry was the Worshipful Master for two years and is a friend of Simon and Angela (who ‘mans’ our helpline).

We then received generous donations from Lady Lowther and Pamela Dunn (Left) who were both long standing friends of Val’s and had supported her in her good works for many years.  These two wonderful ladies supported people affected by Parkinson’s tirelessly, hosting events and attending most of Val’s monthly meetings. Lady Lowther also chose us as one of the charities in her memory when she sadly passed away in January 2022. Lady Lowther and her husband Sir John Lowther were both extremely active in local charities within the county and we are very proud of our connection to their legacy.

As a charity we want to remember and thank the people who helped us to begin and who help us to continue. Since those early days we have continued to receive donations from local people who value the support we offer. Thank you to everyone who has donated, from in memory donations to independent groups raising funds for us. Too many to mention individually but we are extremely grateful, and our committee works together to ensure our funds are used locally, supporting people who are affected by Parkinson’s disease. 

We can’t have a fundraiser page without showcasing our super-dooper mega amazing little whirlwind fundraiser Sylvia – you will all know this marvellous powerhouse pocket rocket…. 

Sylvia, with a little help from her friends, has raised an amazing £6000.00 ish since we got our charitable status. That is a huge amount of money!! She started by selling things out of the back of her car, ‘Del boy’ like during lockdown on the walks, this continues today, plus sales at Fit&Fab, Car Boot and Tabletop sales and various raffles. Recently we have been selling items on ebay too. These ‘items’ include Sylvia’s plants – always strong and healthy, Jams and Marmalades she makes herself, always tasty and well received. Any items donated get resold including a good little book selling gig. Of course, Sylvia has a little gang; Rosemary who makes delicious cakes to sell and the very talented Pat who makes beautiful cards and trinkets.  We must also mention everyone who buys and donates – thank you all so much, we really appreciate you all.

If you would like to donate to us there is a button above to do so, we encourage everyone to join us too; this allows us to keep your name and contact details so we can let you know what we are up to. We may also from time to time offer subsidised events to our members as a thank you. 

If you would like to fundraise for us, we would very much appreciate your help, with extra funds we can set up new groups and expand further into the county, therefore providing more support closer to where people live. 

Thank you so much everyone. I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of history. Angela