Poker players raise money for hospital children’s appeal
Poker players have raised £1,000 for a hospital appeal following a tournament involving over 50 players.
The event was organised by the Bury Poker League, which is based at Moreton Hall Community Centre, in Bury St Edmunds, with the funds directed towards the West Suffolk Hospital’s WiSH Upon A Star Childrens’ Appeal.
With a total of 56 players taking part in the tournament, held on Saturday, August 26, it was won by Sherri’s Kings which consisted of Sherri Jeffery, Richard Barton, Gary Botha and Karl Petters.
The money from the event was raised from a raffle with avid poker enthusiasts coming from around the town and as far away as Ipswich, Lowestoft and parts of Essex.
Sean Hale, Roy Elbourn, Nik Faulds, and Mark Booker have been running a weekly poker league at the community centre every Wednesday for the past five years and they hold a tournament once a year which is dedicated to raising funds for charity.
They have pledged to support My WiSH and make them their chosen charity with funds going towards the appeal which helps to enhance the care to every single child visiting the hospital.
Sean said: “We have up to 24 people play every Wednesday in the league and when we carried out the tournament, we had a total of 14 teams of four taking part.
“We had some marvellous raffle prizes from generous donors and there was quite a wide range of people that came along.
“Apart from going to a casino there’s not a lot of places locally where you can go to play poker so we are a bit unique.
“But we want to try and get more and more people to come to the club,” he added.
Sally Daniels, fundraising manager, accepted the donation from the group and said “We are so grateful to have Sean and the Poker League continue to support us. The Trust cares for a community of around 163,000 young people under the age of 18 which is vast. These donations mean we can enhance any care they receive whether it’s in the hospital or in the community which is just fantastic.”
Written by Russell Cook for My WiSH Charity.
Pictured with their cheque for £1,000 for My WiSH are, members of the Bury Poker League with Sally Daniels (back centre) fundraising manager for the charity.