Come along to our annual Christmas Lunch. The event provides an excellent opportunity for networking and reconnecting with old and new friends and colleagues.
Throughout the evening, a fully licensed bar will be available for your enjoyment. Additionally, we will be hosting a charity raffle to spread the Christmas spirit and support those in need. Donations for raffle prizes are greatly appreciated, as we continue to support The Pendleside Hospice in memory of our past Chairman, Bill Maclean.
Pendleside Hospice is dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals with life-limiting illnesses, as well as their families and caregivers. They provide specialised and holistic palliative care that caters to each person's unique physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs.
We are honoured to have Phil Thompson, former Liverpool football legend, as our after-dinner speaker. Phil will regale us with tales of his incredible career, playing under the iconic Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and winning nearly every accolade in the game.
Live entertainment will also be provided by the magnetic talent of Sam Wray, the rising singer-songwriter and pianist from Milton Keynes. His summer single Watch it Rain was added to Spotify New Music Friday, Fresh Finds and Ones To Watch. He was also interviewed several times for BBC Introducing and made One to Watch for the programme. Combining his soulful voice and virtuosity piano playing style, Sam has performed his music to audiences across the London live music circuit and beyond including at The Bedford, Cargo, & The Ned and Sofar Sounds shows in London and Paris.
The Chairs chosen charity for this year is Take Heart. Following his recent open heart surgery to repair both his mitral and tricuspid valves, Committee member and twice former Chairman, Tommy Knott has become a Trustee of the charity. Take Heart was founded in 1989 and since then has raised in excess of six million pounds to fund projects, both major and minor . We are committed to giving care and comfort to patients and their families at the Yorkshire Heart Centre at Leeds General Infirmary and St James Hospital and its Units within the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. We endeavour to ensure that patients and their families enjoy the very best of comfort within the Yorkshire Heart Centre at what can be a very stressful time. The charity is run entirely on a voluntary basis, so the vast majority of funds go directly to the projects for which they are intended.
Some of the things the charity provides are free TV, phone calls, and internet access to heart patients at their bedside, a rooftop garden for patients and their families to use, a suite of rooms for families to stay in who live too far away from the hospital, and numerous amounts of equipment and furniture for the heart wards throughout the hospital.