Community event in Thurston near Bury St Edmunds helps raise over £2k for Sick Children’s Trust charity

A charity event in a Suffolk village has been described as a ‘massive success’ after it helped raise over £2,000 for a children’s charity.

The Fox and Hounds in Thurston, near Bury St Edmunds, hosted the special occasion with all money going towards Andy Cross’ marathon fund who is running for the Sick Children’s Trust.

Andy, of Thurston, with his wife, Kirsty, and one-year-old son Rory, is running the London Marathon in April, after Rory was born with an extremely rare genetic condition called Chitayat Syndrome – a condition which affects his ability to breathe that has been confirmed in only 13 people in the world.

The Sick Children’s Trust helped support the Cross family, after Rory went into respiratory failure and was put into an induced coma, by giving the family a place to stay, and someone to talk to, just minutes from Rory’s bedside.

Sarah Scott, events manager at the Fox and Hounds, could not believe how well the event went in support of the charity and how the day escalated from a small coffee morning to something much bigger.

She said: “It was honestly a massive, massive success and was just absolutely superb.

“This event started as a coffee morning with cakes and it has escalated because people have been so generous. For instance, with our raffle we only expected a few prizes but we ended up with a total of 45 prizes.

“But we’ve genuinely been blow away in awe, at any one time there must’ve been over 100 people there and they were there coming and going until 4pm which was simply incredible.”

Among the prizes, was a package sent from Ed Sheeran, tickets for Ipswich Town Football Club, a signed shift from Bury Rugby Club and lots more.

On the day, there were a range of activities including face painting, games and entertainment, car washing, and an auction as well as refreshments and a live DJ.

Sarah was delighted to see people enjoying themselves and highlighted something that she found particularly pleasing on the day.

“With these things you’re never sure how many people are going to turn up to an event and it turned out to just be an amazing day that has gone above and beyond expectations,” she said.

“What was particularly brilliant was that the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service came and actually stayed with us for several hours with a fire engine.

“It meant the children could look around, see the blue lights, and they were even allowed to sit in the fire engine which was just phenomenal.”

The total of £2376 raised from the event will go towards Andy’s marathon fund, as his JustGiving fund-raiser also edges closer to £4,500, only £500 off the total target of £5000.

To continue raising money for the Sick Children’s Trust, a 24-hour dart-a-thon is in the works as well as a cycle ride where over 15 people are cycling to Stowmarket and back from Thurston.

After Rory was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in January 2022, which Andy described as ‘the scariest time of our life’, Sarah is glad so much awareness has been raised and support has been given to Andy, Kirsty and Rory.

She said: “Because the family are from the village, everybody knows them, so we’ve lived through this terrible time Rory has been through.

“It has touched so many people's hearts and made people actually realise how many people have actually had to use the facilities at Addenbrooke's.

"As Andy is running this marathon we thought the event was a nice way of giving something back to them as a family after all they’ve been through.”