AN heroic fundraiser masterminded an event to hail the efforts of our region’s key workers and raise money at the same time.

In a unique fun day to thank those in our region who have given so much over the past 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic, Whitehaven’s Frances Flanagan set about ensuring that their efforts were recognised.

The event to say ‘thank you’ was held at Whitehaven Rugby League Club last Saturday.

Frances said: “I fundraised all the way through lockdown and I raised more than £18,000 for the Whitehaven community in that time.

“I hadn’t really done anything for the hospital, but coming out of lockdown I was finding it harder to do so I thought we would have a party for it!”

In all, Frances reveals that £4,500 has been raised for the hospital and that she plans to present a cheque to the hospital over the next week.

Although a lot of work went into bringing the event to fruition, she was delighted with the overall results. The day consisted of live music and brought hundreds of people together while raising money.

The event originally should have gone ahead on July 17, but because of Government restrictions, the day had to be pushed back. These setbacks only made her more determined to make sure the work of key workers in our region was honoured.

She said: “It was stressful at the time as I had to make a decision if I was going to pull the event completely at one stage, but I called around my family and friends and got everything organised.

“I’ve never done anything like this before in my life, but at the same time I can say I really enjoyed it.”

For Frances, it was paramount that those present had an enjoyable day in and amongst the fundraising efforts and, she confirmed that the feedback from those present has been very positive in the days since!

She said: “I’ve had people stop me in the supermarket to say that they loved it on Saturday and I’ve also had some of the workers say to me that they did. On top, I’ve had a lot of people messaging me through Facebook to ask if this kind of event could be run over the coming years on an annual basis.”

Addressing whether the event could become an annual extravaganza, Frances remained coy, however.

She added: “It went so well that I’d be so scared it wouldn’t go as well next time! We had the worst weather possible on Saturday but it was still just such a wonderful day. Everyone just said, ‘for somebody who has not done anything like that before, the line-ups were great’.”