November the 25th is an important day in The AKU Society’s calendar. On this day, we celebrate Garrod day which marks the birthday of Sir Archibald Garrod, the man who first described AKU. This important anniversary is celebrated by holding yearly Coffee Mornings. This year we went global, holding coffee mornings in Australia, Jordan, Germany and all over the UK.
After kicking things off in Bristol the weekend before, everything was set for the second annual Garrod Day Coffee Morning. In the Cambridge office, Rory and Ciarán were in high spirits as they set up their cakes and coffee. Ciarán made a Malteser tiffin, which he was particularly happy with, especially as it disappeared so quickly.
A huge thank you to everyone who came along and donated. We raised vital funds and awareness for the AKU cause. We would also like to thank everyone who made cakes for us, you directly influenced how much money we made.
In this picture, you can see brownies made by Deepa, raisin flapjacks made by Marie Rose, ginger cake made by Rick, cupcakes and crumble made by Oliver (our CEO) and Ciarán’s tiffin of course (before it all sold out).
At the end of the day, we managed to raise a very respectable £322.51, easily beating last year’s total. Rory and Ciarán were exhausted but content after a day of being cake salesmen.
Our research department and national AKU centre are in Liverpool, and the team there also held a coffee morning. We would like to thank Jane, Jim and everyone else involved for their hard work. They managed to raise an incredible £134.03, all whilst spreading information on AKU.
Other coffee mornings in the UK included Sue Lee’s in London and Colleen Addicott (one of our trustees) in Saint Albans. We would just like to thank everyone who took part for your great efforts!
Once the coffee mornings were finished in the UK, Australia kicked into action. Kim Hol set up an amazing coffee morning in Robertson.
She sums it up wonderfully in her own words, “I was actually quite overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity and support from my friends and raised $185 on the day as well as who knows how much donated through the just giving website from those who couldn’t make it. A lovely morning with old and new friends and many more people now know about alkaptonuria!”
So a big thank you from The AKU Society for everyone in Australia who took part.
What helped us to make money in Cambridge and Bristol was our raffle, which was full of great prizes.
Our top prize was a ‘Cook Italian’ hamper, filled with Italian cooking ingredients. Suzanne White was happy to receive the prize, even though she had to carry it on the train back home to London.
Our top prize was a ‘Cook Italian’ hamper, filled with Italian cooking ingredients. Suzanne White was happy to receive the prize, even though she had to carry it on the train back home to London.
Our other prizes included:
- -Horrible Histories box set donated by the Cambridge International Book Centre.
- -4 pantomime tickets to see Dick Whittington donated by the Cambridge Arts Centre.
- -2 tickets to see Frozen on ice in London, generously donated by Sammie.
- -Our CEO Oliver won the 4 cinema tickets given to use by the rather stylish Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge.
- -A knives set was donated by Morrisons thanks to Tracey our contact there. Luckily, Desiree, an American won them, just in time to carve her Thanksgiving turkey.
- -Fine dining Indian experience was donated by Navadhanya restaurant.
- -Classical CDs from Percius, another company in The AKU Society’s office.
- -A craft sauce dish donated by Cambridge Contemporary Arts.
Thank you to all those who donated prizes, we had great fun drawing the prizes at the end of the coffee morning!