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Our Taunton Group looks forward to 2025 following a successful 2024 which was crowned by the 50th Anniversary Dinner at Oake Manor Golf Club in September, when 170 of us gathered to celebrate this milestone. Ian Ramus was an effortless Master of Ceremonies; we enjoyed short talks by our President David Milliken and by Trudy Stammer from CRUK, followed by a superb meal which was punctuated by the visiting Taunton Deane Male Voice Choir, who entertained us firstly with a rousing “Flash Mob” session followed by a number of varied and amusing songs. A raffle and auction attracted a generous response from guests and enabled us to make a surplus of £2,036 on the event. All in all it was a memorable evening and we now look forward to the next 50 years! The rest of the year passed quietly, marked by a seasonal return to Roadchef where, augmented by a number of Male Voice Choir members, we sang Christmas carols to passers by.

At the end of November we held our traditional Big Breakfast at Temple Methodist Church Hall. As ever it was very well attended and we were grateful to our two cooks, Amanda and Jackie, who served up appetising breakfasts for over four hours in a busy kitchen. We were honoured to welcome the High Sheriff of Somerset (Robert Beckley) and his wife, together with Vanessa Garside, Mayor of Taunton, with her consort. The event raised £1,089 including sales of Christmas cards and calendars, and gave everyone there a lot of pleasure. Also in November we were delighted to receive £2,000 from Bishops Lydeard Mill as a result of our Summer Thursday stewarding of this wonderful attraction.

Once again we had a wonderful year at Roadchef, where in all (including Christmas) we collected £11,600 for our local research projects and we are so grateful to all those who turned out to collect, especially over Summer weekends. At national level Roadchef has transferred its support from CRUK to another charity for 2025 but we are hoping that with our friendly local contacts we may be able to return this year. Already 2025 is looking busy; our friends in the Male Voice Choir are presenting a complete concert in aid of CRUK on SATURDAY 22 MARCH in St James’ Church, Taunton at which we hope for a good attendance, whilst our annual Bridge Day will take place on THURSDAY 1 MAY at Trull Memorial Hall – we hope for sixteen tables of four players on the day so do come along to both events to support us. There is also a Quiz Evening in the offing, date as yet not firmed up.

As previously mentioned, both our Secretary and Treasurer are standing down this year. Each has given CRUK over 20 years’ service and we need to replace them with two more equally dedicated folk. So if you share our passion for research into, and gradual elimination of, cancer in all its invidious forms please offer your services – the need is great as there is so much to do! The work is not onerous – on the contrary it is very rewarding (and fun)!

Alan Reeve
Hon Treasurer



Previous update:

As usual it has been a busy year for our Group. At Christmas we sang carols to the passers by at Roadchef (and hope to do so again this year); we were honoured to be joined on one day by The Mayor and Mayoress of Taunton, with the Mayor joining in enthusiastically on his clarinet! Since then we have had a very successful Bridge Day which raised over £1,200 and have resumed our weekend collections at Roadchef. We are so grateful for the ability to collect there for CRUK; over the Summer holiday period we are there on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and by the end of the 2024 Summer we shall have raised well over £80,000 – a wonderful result to boost our support for our two research projects at Musgrove Park Hospital. After struggling with the official credit card reader supplied by the National charity, in 2024 we purchased our own card reader, which is far simpler to use and will generate at least £2,000 more by the end of the Summer.

We have continued to staff Bishops Lydeard Mill every week. We refer to it as “Taunton’s Best Kept Secret” as so few people seem to know about this wonderful restored Mill and Rural Life Museum. Despite the large investment made by the owning Back family, they take nothing for themselves and all revenue from visitors goes to local charities, including ourselves – we are so grateful.

2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Taunton Group and we are looking forward to our Gala Celebration dinner at Oake Manor Golf Club on 21 September. We hope for an attendance of 200 to share in our celebration, and we are proud that over that 50 year period our Group has raised well over £2.8m to fund vital research – and in latter years to focus on our local projects with local patients (you can read all about them elsewhere on this site). We hope the Dinner will kick off another 50 years of determined support to eliminate this terrible and all-pervading illness.

Finally to say that, after many years of service, both the Hon Secretary of the Group and the Hon Treasurer are looking to step down in 2025 and hand over to equally energetic successors. These two posts are vital to the ongoing strength of the Group and its ability to raise funds, so if you can volunteer for either of these roles we shall be delighted!

Alan Reeve
Hon Treasurer