Now our first ball is booked for 7th May 2011 in the Walled Garden at Luton Hoo. The success of this will shape the projects we can deliver in the months to come.

Tickets are £65 a head; including champagne reception, 3-course meal and live band. Drinks reception 7pm and carriages at Midnight.

We hope you can join us for this celebration. To secure your
tickets please email: sue@hertsagainstcancer.com

The last 12 months have seen our pledgers organising everything from raffles to fashion shows; mother and toddler mornings to Sri Lankan curry evenings; girls’ nights in to Iron Man challenges. People have raised money by tasting cocktails and growing beards; they’ve braved half marathons and, in one woman’s case, run a hundred miles.

All these efforts and many besides have so far raised nearly £9,000.
This has allowed us to register as an official charity. HMRC have recently approved eligibility to claim Gift Aid meaning that we can add 28p in the £ to many donations.

ABA Market Research – the St Albans-based company where colleagues got together to support HaC – has funded work on a logo and branding for the charity and the planned charity gift shop, to be called, ‘Raindrops On Roses’. Finding premises has not been easy but, fingers crossed, we may be near to bringing to St Albans a new and exciting place to buy high-quality, original gifts.

What next? HaC is close to its initial milestone of £10k and with the help of our remaining pledgers we will be able to start using this money to good effect. Plans are also in place for my personal pledge – a charity ball to both celebrate our success and generate a fresh wave of activity. All those who have raised over £100 for HaC will have first pick of the tickets, but I hope you will all be interested in attending what promises to be a great event. Further information will be released soon.

So, it’s been an exciting start for HaC, and this year we hope to see our efforts begin to enhance local work to spread the word about the early detection of cancer – a message that seems more timely than ever given recent media coverage of how badly the UK lags behind other nations in this regard.
To carry on the good work, we need your support. If you have any ideas for future fundraisers, please contact me at sue@hertsagainstcancer.com
Donations can now be made simply via Virgin Money Giving and shortly through our own website.
Finally, a huge thank-you to all those who have helped make Herts against Cancer’s first year such a success. We hope you share our excitement about what we might yet achieve.

All best wishes,
Sue Harkness
On behalf of HaC trustees
Registered charity 1137328 Barn Cottage, Hatching Green, Harpenden, AL5 2JY Tel 01582 767567 sue@hertsagainstcancer.com

 •Some personal experiences of the condition have motivated us to take some positive action

 •Every year about 1 in 200 British people will be diagnosed with cancer and, given the overwhelming evidence of the difference early detection can make, we feel our efforts could be a vital contribution

 •In 2009 a national body was set up to focus on early detection but, until now, no charity dedicated to this cause has existed locally

 •We will plan how funds raised are best spent with the guidance of the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative and, locally, in conjunction with the Mount Vernon Cancer Network

•The trustees of the charity are Sue Harkness, Alison Bainbridge, John Hussey and Philip Nicholson

 •We are extremely grateful for your encouragement and support