brainstrust

The Balaka Curry Night raises over £400 for brainstrust!

Well, we did spice up our September and an Indian Summer has followed! Our first curry night at  The Balaka in Winchester was a huge success, raising over £400 for brainstrust. Good company, excellent food (more than we could eat) and the brainstrust ambience means that this will be the first of many. So don't worry if you missed this event - our next is planned for January, when I reckon we will be in need of some serious heat!

Thank you, all at the Balaka. And a special thank you to Catherine for the loan of the coffee mugs (without saucers)!

Come along and join the fun. Spicy will it be!

A very special event, not least because the run was in memory of Mike Hebbard, who tragically did not survive his brain tumour and passed away. Since then his wife, Nita, and daughter, Paula, have been championing the brain tumour cause for brainstrust and have raised over £1000 (so far). Thank you!

So on a misty, damp 31st August, a group of runners from the Havant Athletic Club and Portsmouth Triathletes gathered together in the Forest of Bere to run in Mike’s memory. They all knew Mike and it was good to hear them sharing memories of running with him.

Nita and Paula were the stars. Nita because she began the race, and Paula because she ran the race!

The sun sort of shone – spasmodically. But this didn’t dampen the spirits of the Joint family, which raised a magnificent £2069 for brainstrust, in memory of Pamela.

Pamela’s sister, Sue, landlady of The Stag Inn, put on a wonderful day, which began with a car boot sale and was followed by a whole variety of activities, including a hog roast, a string quartet, a bucking sheep and face painting.

Thank you to everyone who came along and enjoyed this special day at The Stag Inn, and a big thank you to everyone who helped organise all the fun.

Oxhibitions is the world's first ever Oxfam art gallery. It opened in Catherine Street, Salisbury in April 2008.

'Symptomatic', by local artist Richard Eveleigh, was one of the first exhibitions to be held in the gallery. It was also Richard's first solo exhibition and was held on 27th June and 1st August. It featured artwork Richard produced after he had suffered a stroke due to an aneurysm in his brain.

The exhibition was a roaring success and 9 of the 14 paintings were sold. 50% of the sale proceeds were donated to charity raising a total of £535. This has been split equally between Oxfam and brainstrust.

Because of this great success Oxfam now intends to set up further galleries around the country and Richard is going on to start a fine art degree course at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth this autumn. A big thank you and lots of good luck to Richard!

The Summer Serenade on 19 July raised a magnificent £3,300, smashing last year’s Midsummer Medley total. We think the freezing weather made everyone put their hands deep into their pockets!

We are so grateful to Anna Wormleighton for organizing this amazing event for the second year running and to her brilliant mum Alison for hosting it. Special thanks also go to the talented performers who sang and played beautifully making it such a magical evening. And to all the helpful neighbours, villagers of Knebworth and the Knebworth Twinning Association who helped support the concert and produced an audience of 250 people. Thank you all for supporting this fantastic event and helping to spread the word about brainstrust.