Wear A Hat Day fun to find brain tumour cure

Among the 30 guests at Padbury Hill Farm were Buckingham MP Greg Smith and Milton Keynes South MP Iain Stewart, as well as Sarah Long from Winslow who lost her son Oscar aged six in 2002 – a year after Sue lost her niece, Alison Phelan, aged seven, (the inspiration for the charity Ali’s Dream).

Other guests included Sue’s dad, Colin Hinton (Alison’s grandfather) of Buckingham, and Liz Fussey, also from Buckingham, who works in the PR & Communications team at Brain Tumour Research and whose brother is living with life-changing effects following treatment for a brain tumour.

Red Pepper Catering, based in Bletchley, laid on a delicious meal of chicken in a mushroom and tarragon sauce with sauté potatoes and a panache of vegetables, followed by chocolate cheesecake with a red berry compote.

Guests, who paid £35 for their tickets, enjoyed games of Heads and Tails and Playing Card Bingo. There was also a raffle and an auction, which included hats donated by celebrity milliners including Stephen Jones OBE, a box of prime cuts of meat from local butchers, Padbury Meats, a delectable afternoon tea for two from Red Pepper Catering and a wonderful cushion donated by Buckingham-based Cygnet Interiors. Raffle contributions included a delightful spring floral arrangement from Howes the Florist, with Easter Eggs and various bottles of alcohol donated by Tesco Buckingham.

Sue, who retired at the end of June as the charity’s chief executive (she is now a trustee), said: “We had a lot of fun as always, raising £1,267 on the day for Brain Tumour Research, bringing my total retirement year fundraising to £7,392. I’m hoping to raise a further £828 which would mean I have enough for a third tile to place on the Wall of Hope at one of the charity’s four Centres of Excellence – this time at the University of Plymouth. Thanks to the generosity of friends and charity supporters, I’ve already raised tiles to sponsor days of research at the Institute of Cancer Research and at Queen Mary University of London.”

Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure. The charity is the driving force behind the call for a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs.

To make a donation to Sue’s retirement fundraising page go to www.justgiving.com/page/sue-farrington-smith-1682453902610