Scarborough Primary School donate £8K to local hospice

The donation was raised through The Butterfly Ball, held at the Hackness Grange Hotel in September, that was organised by Hackness Primary School Senior Advanced Teaching Assistant Sharon Procter.

Mrs Procter wanted to raise money for Saint Catherine’s after her friend and colleague Eden Coombs passed away in the hospice in June 2017, at the age of 57.

"Eden enjoyed gardening and was a great nature lover and we wanted to create a memory garden at school as a lasting legacy to her," said Mrs Procter.

"So I decided to hold an event, as a tribute to her, to raise funds for the hospice and a nature garden."

The Butterfly Ball was attended by Mrs Coombs' family and friends, her colleagues and parents from Hackness. Within days of going on sale all of the 170 tickets were sold.

Pupils at the village school helped to boost the funds by organising a pantomime, sponsored read, a £5 challenge and one boy sold his chickens' eggs.

In the months leading up to the ball and during the evening, a total of £16,507 was raised and was split equally between the hospice and a memory garden as a “last legacy to her”.

The school hopes to complete the memory garden by next summer.

Sharon added: "Not in my wildest dreams did I expect us to raise as much as we did and I would like to thank everyone who supported us along the way, including a number of generous local businesses who made financial donations and gave us raffle and auction prizes.

"I would also like to thank my former colleague Karen Taylor and one of our parents Valerie Hall, who helped me with all the organisations.

"The ball was an unforgettable event where we celebrated Eden's life and raised a lot of money to ensure that she will always be remembered at Hackness School. She was dearly-loved and is much missed by us all."