Our Inaugural London Lunch
On Saturday 17th September 2022, 116 people joined us in the prestigious Queen’s Club in London for our inaugural London Lunch. The venue looked stunning in the autumn sun as guests arrived for a pre lunch drinks reception in both the Members’ Bar and on the balcony overlooking the beautifully manicured courts before we headed in to the President’s Room for a delicious lunch.
Our Event Organiser, Philip Quinlan, welcomed everyone to the venue and thanked everyone who had taken tables, donated raffle prizes and auction lots before introducing service user Jenna Fitzgerald. This beautiful lady shared her personal story of how she sustained her spinal cord injury and her journey of recovery and rebuilding her life. We are so grateful to Jenna. Her honesty and openness touched the hearts of everyone in attendance and gave a true insight into the reality of dealing with, what the World Health Organisation acknowledges as, one of the most devastating and life changing injuries that a person can sustain.
Following lunch, our fantastic auctioneer Robert Hoban, CEO and Founder of Offr, who generously offers his time and expertise to us, brilliantly encouraged guests to bid for seven auction lots which had been kindly donated to us for the event. This was followed by a raffle where a generous prize was awarded to a guest at every table in the room.
Thank you so much to everyone who donated auction lots, raffle prizes, bought tables and generously supported both the auction and the raffle. The event raised almost Stg£32,000 or €36,500.
We are really thankful to everyone who attended the event and particularly to those who travelled from Ireland to support us in our first foray to London. There was a lovely atmosphere and it was so lovely to meet everyone after a long spell of enforced isolation.
I think it is safe to say we’ll be back!
