Golf Club Captains claim record for Children’s Hospice Charity

Tim Winn and Sarah Shaw, 2015 golf captains at Branston Golf & Country Club, near Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, have raised during their year and today (2 April) presented a record beating £41,316 to the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice charity at Stoke on Trent that cares for children throughout Staffordshire with shortened life expectancy and their families.

This sum, presented to Melanie Williams, head of high value partnerships at The Donna Louise Trust, is the largest sum ever received by that Charity from a golf club or golf captain’s year and is believed to be the record for captain’s annual charity fund raising by any golf club in Britain.

Branston Club captains Tim Winn, a business development manager for Lloyds Bank, and farmers wife Sarah Shaw organised a succession of social and golfing events during their 2015 captaincy year that ranged from a Comedy evening with Patrick Monahan, through a Branston Bake Off to the outstandingly successful Branston’s Got Stars In Its Eyes talent show that raised over £10,000 in a single night.

Top event for the year involved Tim Winn rowing from the Tower of London to the Eiffel Tower in Paris in the Tower2Tower Challenge organised by the Donna Louise Trust last May. This epic journey is reckoned to be the ‘Everest’ of open rowing events especially as it includes 36 hours non-stop rowing across the choppy English Channel. The gruelling task saw two teams battling against tides on the Thames and the Seine and dodging the super-tankers and busy Channel shipping at dead of night.

Tim trained hard at Branston’s state of the art gym & fitness facilities to get fit for the Challenge and be able to endure lack of sleep as well as the physical effort involved.

‘As only 100 people have ever completed the journey I persuaded many Lloyds Bank branches and clients to sponsor my challenge through a Just Giving site and they, together with friends, members and management at Branston Golf & Country Club have all contributed to this fantastic sum’ said Tim Winn. ‘Donna Louise Trust’s original target was absolutely smashed when the Tower2Tower Challenge pulled in over £300,000 & I’m thrilled to have been part of that achievement’ he added.

Branston’s golfers and local families that are supported by the Donna Louise Trust turned out in force for the presentation. Melanie Williams, the Trust’s head of high value partnerships who also completed the Tower2Tower Challenge, said ‘Branston’s captains truly exceptional donation of £41,316 is an amazing and record breaking achievement that will help us support children at home or in the Hospice with the challenges that having a life-threatening condition can often bring.’ ‘Having experienced the welcoming friendliness and overwhelming popularity of Branston Club that has driven this extraordinary achievement I’m convinced Branston deserves its reputation as the Midlands’ most successful Golf & Country club’ she added.

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Latest newsletter from the Staffordshire Union of Golf Clubs – SUGC March 2016 Newsletter No 29