Good causes

SHOPPERS and workers at a supermarket helped generate more than £2,500 for Comic Relief's quarter-of-a-century birthday.

Events to raise money for Red Nose Day took place over the weekend of March 15 to 17 at Sainsbury's in Northolt Road, South Harrow.

WRACK your brains at a quiz night being arranged to help raise funds to send a local girl to volunteer at a South African animal rehabiliation centre.

Teams are needed to face questions at Harrow Borough FC's Earlsmead Stadium in Carlyon Avenue in South Harrow to aid Chantelle Duffy.

South Harrow: A fundraising family quiz night is being held by Harrow Borough FC at its ground at Earlsmead Stadium in Carlyon Avenue tomorrow (Friday) at 8pm.

Entry is £5 per person and teams can be made of up six contestants although people are free to come along to be put into teams on the night.

ENGLAND flags and hats were in abundance as people came together throughout the borough to celebrate St George's Day.

Parkinson's UK Harrow branch, which holds weekly exercise classes aimed at improving the mobility and quality of life for people with the condition, held a special class on Monday with a truly British flavour.

HEALTHY hikers are taking up the challenge to make this year an active year in honour of the Olympic Games.

People who take part in the Harrow Health Walks have joined Harrow Council's Make a Pledge campaign which is encouraging residents to make one resolution for the year and reap the rewards.

Harrow Borough FC is holding a fundraising race night on Friday March 9 at its Earlsmead ground in Carylon Avenue at 8pm.
Punters can pay on the door and it is £5 for adults, including one free bet, with senior citizens free, children free if accompanied by an adult and adults two for the price of one is they arrive together.

The 1st Roxeth Scout Group is holding a fundraising auction on Saturday, February 18, from 11am at South Harrow Baptist Church in Northolt Road. The room will be open for an hour beforehand for viewing.

THREE partners at two different Harrow accountancy firms received the ORBIS Visionary Award on World Sight Day, held on October 13, for raising £100,000 over four years for ORBIS, a charity that provides equipment and training to enable hospitals in third-world countries to treat blindness.
The recipients were Vinoo Patel, 60, of Grange Road, South Harrow, and Nilesh Haria, 52, of Jesmond Way, Stanmore, who run Richfields in Station Road, Harrow, and Manhar Patel, 65, of Berry Hill, Stanmore, of M C Patel and Co in Kenton Road, Harrow.

STAFF at a Harrow-based accountancy firm will be among a host of fundraisers to walk over burning embers and broken glass later this month to help raise cash for St Luke's Hospice.

Employees at RDP Newmans will join others to take on the extreme challenge to help the Kenton Grange based hospice in its is bid to raise £100,000 to mark its 25 anniversary, which hosts the firewalk each year.

The efforts from the 26 members of staff, at the Station Road based chartered accountants, coincide with the Observer's bid to help raise £10,000 of the hospice's £100,000 target this year and will take place at Claremont High School in Claremont Avenue, Kenton, on Thursday, September 22.

The team from the firm, including partners David Finn, Roger Nyman, Paresh Radia and Lyndon Perez, will attend motivational seminars and training sessions before tackling 20 feet of wood burning embers at more than 1200 Fahrenheit or a bed of razor sharp glass, which they hope will raise more than £10,000 for the hospice which cares for people in Harrow and Brent whose illnesses are no longer curable.

David Finn a partner with RDP Newmans, said: "Here at RDP Newmans we are always looking at ways to give something back to the local community.
"St Luke's Hospice is an extremely valued local charity which provides an amazing level of care for those in Harrow and Brent whose illnesses are no longer curable, which is why we are sponsoring this event.

"The Hospice is particularly close to my heart as my secretary Brenda Hayes was a resident at the hospice recently before she passed away.

"We all know it is going to be extremely tough and I'm sure before the challenge the majority of our team will be wanting to do anything but walk across hot embers or broken glass.

"However after two hours of motivational training I am confident every single competitor will be successful, in the mean time raising thousands of pounds for St Luke's."

The event is being staged at the school in Claremont Avenue, Kenton, by experts from Time4Change.

Time4Change was founded by Cliff Mann - the most experienced fire and glass walking instructor in Europe.

AN art collective has high hopes for the future after the first year of its experimental West Harrow gallery went "incredibly well", writes Katri Paasikoski.
Usurp Art Gallery and Studios in Vaughan Road, opened in February 2010, and owner Poulomi Desai said: "It was a risk, but a risk with a bit of insight. In art scenes, people support each other."