As a golf club, Ruddington Grange Golf Club (RGGC) members have long recognised the need to support those who are less fortunate than us and we are lucky to have three such extremely dedicated people who have run their particular charity days for a good number of years. The monies raised between them is now well over £1,000,000 – yes, over one million pounds! A fantastic achievement!
RGGC’s oldest Charity Day started in 1990 and was created by Terry Bradley to raise money for his friend’s 7 year old daughter, who had developed Leukaemia. At the time, curative bone marrow transplants cost approximately £17,000 and that was the target for each golf day. Since then, Terry has held the day annually, raising extremely generous sums, most recently, for the Nottinghamshire Leukaemia Appeal. In total, since starting in 1990 and including this July’s event, our Leukaemia Day has raised over £500,000.
Our second Charity Day started in 1991 led by Margaret Thorpe, and which originated to raise monies for adopted children, due to Margaret and her sister both being adopted. When the Children’s Society gave up its adoption arm, the charity day from then on was held to raise funds for The Coram Charity, which is the first and longest running children’s charity. Margaret’s day has also supported a charity called My Bag, which aims to help vulnerable children throughout England, by supplying a holdall with essential and comfort items as they enter foster care.
Over the past two years the main aim has been to raise enough money to provide the Nottingham Children’s Hospital with a portable MRI vein scanner. The Beam Campaign was set up by The Children’s Surgery Foundation to provide as many UK children’s hospitals as possible with this unique scanner, to ensure that intravenous (IV) access is a more efficient and less intimidating procedure for babies, young patients and their families. Thanks to the funds provided by this Charity day, the Beam campaign has succeeded in providing Nottingham Children’s hospital with such a scanner. Since its inception, the Children’s Charity Day has raised in excess of £250,000.
Our third Charity day, the Padraic Sweeney Kidney Research Golf Day has raised a total of £312,000 over the last 30 years. It was started by a group from the Nottingham Irish Golf Society, led by Padraic himself back in 1996. He suffered from kidney failure which finally claimed his life in the summer of 2000. The Nottingham Irish Society have continued to run this fundraising day each year.
Over the years, most of the funds raised have gone to research at the City and QMC hospitals. Through the last three decades, the funds have also bought laptops to help kidney transplant patients keep in touch with their families during their hospital stay, send families of kidney patients on respite holidays, and bought three kidney dialysis machines for Padraic’s local hospital back in Mayo in Ireland.
Between our Leukaemia Day, the Children’s Charity Day and the Padraic Sweeney Kidney Research Day, a total of well over £1,000,000 has been raised.
Ruddington Grange Golf Club Ltd is very proud of its generous members and guests in raising such amounts for charity and would like to recognise their support.
Written by Gini Whitehead, Chair of the Board at Ruddington Grange Golf Club.