This Is Cheshire

LANDLORD PLANS CHRISTMAS CRACKER TO BUY INTENSIVE CARE BED

From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 4th Oct 2001.

LANDLORD Ron Dalton is planning a memorable Christmas fund-raiser in a bid to buy a bed for intensive care patients.

Mr Dalton runs the Waggon and Horses pub in West Road, Congleton, and hopes to raise £7,500 with his yuletide raffle.

However the festive fund-raiser is no run of the mill charity event, with the first prize certain to prove a crowd-puller.

The winner of the raffle will take delivery on Christmas Day of a brand new Vauxhall Corsa, of which they will have the use for 12 months.

The runner-up will scoop a mini weekend in Paris, and the third prize is a digital camera.

The hospital bed Mr Dalton hopes to buy with the proceeds of the raffle would go to the intensive care unit at Macclesfield Hospital.

Mr Dalton's wife Pauline died in 1998 at the age of only 48 after being taken seriously ill while on holiday in Spain.

She was flown back to the UK and admitted to the ICU at Macclesfield Hospital, where she died three weeks later.

Mr Dalton is staging the raffle as a way of saying thankyou to the hospital and the dedicated nurses who cared for his wife.

"The draw will take place on Christmas Eve, and the car will be delivered to the winner's home on Christmas Day," said Mr Dalton.

"The raffle tickets costing £2.50 each, go on sale in the middle of October, and I'm hoping to sell 3,000.

"A new bed for the ICU will cost between £7,000 and £8,000, and selling 3,000 tickets will bring in £7,500."

Mr Dalton gave the ICU a major cash boost with the proceeds of a hugely successful fun day at the Waggon and Horses.

The fund-raiser brought in £2,463, of which £1,952 was given to the intensive care unit.

The ICU got another £335 boost from Waggon and Horses regular Gary Kirkbright and Congleton Rotary Club Dane.

Mr Kirkbright raised £235 after completing a 1,400-kilometre cycle ride from London to Edinburgh and back. The Dane club added to the total with a £100 donation.

Mr Dalton presented the ICU cheques to Sister Claire Allen, who lives in Congleton and was one of the nurses who cared for Mrs Dalton.

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