Sikh Youth’s fundraiser for St John’s Hospice

Kind-hearted members of Doncaster’s Sikh community fulfilled a fund-raising promise to St John’s Hospice at their third attempt.

The Sikh Youth Doncaster volunteers originally organised a sponsored walk in April, but had to call it off because of the first national lockdown.

They rearranged the event for September, but further complications meant they had to cancel again.

But it was third time lucky as they finally managed to step out last month, completing five laps of Doncaster’s Lakeside – some two miles in all – to raise a welcome £545.50 for the Balby-based hospice.

Jarnel Singh organised the walk and was one of 15 Sikh Youth Doncaster volunteers who took part, including Daljit Singh and Gurmeer Singh. They were accompanied part of the way by Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones and her Deputy, Cllr Glyn Jones.

Jarnel said: “We made a pledge to raise funds for St John’s and were determined to see it through. It all worked out in the end and we were thrilled when Mayor Ros and Glyn joined us to hand over the cheque, which included a generous £100 donation from our friends at Warmsworth and Edlington Lions Club.

“As a group, we try to help good causes. We previously ran a raffle to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and earlier in the pandemic ran Project Fruitful, which saw our volunteers packing up and distributing up to 250 parcels of ‘5-a-day’ fruits every week in Doncaster.”

A delighted Lindsey Richards, from the hospice, said: “It’s a wonderful gesture as our income from charitable donations is really down this year due to the Covid restrictions. Every single penny that we receive through fundraising is spent on added extras to enhance the care we provide for our patients, such as hairdressing, or improving the environment of St Johns, including landscaping the gardens and providing outdoor seating.”

Mayor Ros and Cllr Glyn Jones hand over the cheque watched by L-R Daljit Singh, Alan Lockwood and Andrew Brankin from RDaSH, and Jarnel Singh.