White Rose Ladies win award (From Craven Herald)

Cancer Research gives Flame of Hope Award to Ribble Valley and White Rose Ladies

10:20am Friday 3rd June 2011 in Local news

Hard-working fundraisers have won a national award for their charity work.

Karen Weaving, from Skipton, and the Ribble Valley and White Rose Ladies Committee, will this month receive a Flame of Hope Award from Cancer Research UK. The honour is given each year to groups and individuals in recognition of their tireless efforts to raise funds for the charity.

Mrs Weaving and the White Rose Ladies have been chosen by the charity’s awards panel as joint winners of the Fundraising in the Community Award 2011. Mrs Weaving, who runs Skipton’s Rendezvous Hotel with her husband Malcolm, founded the ladies’ group in 1998 to raise money for research into childhood cancer.

It holds regular fundraising events, including a luncheon club four times a year and has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mrs Weaving said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been chosen for this award and would like to thank everyone who has nominated us. “Cancer Research UK is a very important charity to us and receiving the award will be the icing on the cake for all the fundraising we’ve worked hard on this year.”

Mrs Weaving has also discovered that she has been nominated individually for the Fundraising Volunteer of the Year Award 2011 and has been chosen to receive a special commendation in this category. She has been invited by Cancer Research UK to attend an awards lunch at the Hotel Russell in London, on Friday, June 10, where she will be presented with her award by Michael Pragnell, chairman of the charity.

A Cancer Research UK spokesman said: “These awards are our way of saying thanks to the people who are the lifeblood of our organisation – people who give their time freely to raise money for research and promote greater awareness of the disease, and yet ask for nothing in return.”

The Rendezvous Hotel has been the venue for several Cancer Research UK events and the fundraising is set to continue with a fashion evening in the hotel’s conference suite on Tuesday, June 14. Image consultant Clive Bashforth, senior trainer for Colour Me Beautiful Europe, will be on hand with tips for dressing for success. Tickets are available by contacting the Rendezvous Hotel on (01756) 700100.