By Sarah Curran
A PORTAFERRY fundraising group plans to celebrate in style after reaching a £500,000 milestone.
Portaferry’s Cancer Research UK fundraising group, which runs charity shop ReNeW For Cancer Research in the town, has officially raised over £500,000 for the cancer charity.
As a tribute to all who have helped the group reach this mammoth milestone, a celebration afternoon tea event has been organised for September 21 at Market House in Portaferry, and everyone is welcome to join in the celebrations.
The fundraising group was founded in the early 90’s by a group of like-minded locals, with the aim of raising much needed funds for CRUK (Cancer Research UK).
One of the co-founding members, Maureen McCarthy, explained: “We started the fundraising group because there were so many people suffering from cancer and the idea was that research was going to be the thing that would help the most.”
As the group became more successful in their fundraising endeavours, they decided to acquire a shop 11 years ago where they could continue to raise funds for CRUK from their hometown.
Maureen continued: “We decided to open the shop as we had an Action Cancer shop in the town and we got it into our heads that charity shops were a bit like antique shops – if you have more than one, you get more customers.
“We thought another charity shop in the town would be ideal and there were no shops in the town at that time and we thought there were so many places that were either derelict or unused and we could definitely do something – so we did.”
The group initially thought of opening an official CRUK charity shop in the town, however they were advised against this and to instead open their own independent charity shop, which fundraised for CRUK.
Maureen explained: “There is no one at all in the group who gets a salary. All the money goes directly to the charity.
“We decided to set up our own charity and open the shop because we didn’t want to be having to pay a manager.
“It was a good idea to set up our own charity because then there was nobody getting paid. Everybody was equal. We were all volunteers.”
The success of the charity group blossomed and soon they opened a second and third store in the town, with each shop selling different wares – new items, clothes and furniture.
However, as volunteers run the shops, keeping the three shops running became difficult.
“We had the three going at the one time but it was a nightmare to try and staff. You couldn’t work it,” Maureen said.
Maureen stressed how important supporting local charity shops were and paid tribute to the generosity shown over the years by the local people through donations.
“It’s been unbelievable,” she said.
“It is unbelievable that a wee place like Portaferry could raise this amount of money.
Looking to the future of the fundraising group, Maureen said they hoped to continue for as long as possible, adding that new volunteers were always welcome to join them.
The celebration event, held at Market House in The Square, will take place between 1pm and 4pm on September 21. All are welcome to join in the festivities.
