Last Friday, the staff and students of Withernsea High School joined countless others around the country in raising funds for a worthy cause by participating in Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’.

The event is the charity’s biggest annual fundraising activity, generating over £11 million in 2021 alone, to support people living with cancer.

Despite the current financial hardships being faced across the country, Macmillan are still hopeful that this amount may be beaten in 2022.  

At Withernsea High School, the event was marked with a bake sale that offered students a selection of tasty homemade or store-bought treats that had been prepared or donated by staff across the school. Eager to enjoy a sweet treat, whilst supporting a great cause, students helped to raise an impressive £192.90 at the breaktime sale.

To put this amount into context, contemporary figures from Macmillan suggest that £71 would help the charity deliver three hours’ emotional and practical support to approximately 200 people through their Online Community Forum. Meanwhile, £100 would cover the cost of a person affected by cancer to attend a health and wellbeing event which would help equip them with the skills to improve the management of those elements in their lives.  

Withernsea High’s event was organised by Teacher of English, Olivia Hunter-Robinson, with support from Year 11 students Kacie Dayman, Robbie Feeney, Elise Culley and Lauren Hudson who helped with the setting up and packing down of the stall, as well as serving students and taking donations.   

Commenting on the money raised, Olivia said: ‘Many of us have been affected by cancer, either directly or indirectly, so it was very important for us as a school to participate in Macmillan’s Coffee Morning.

We felt a bake sale was the best way of being able to show our support for this national event, with staff providing an impressive array of cakes and buns so that students had a huge selection of treats to choose from.

Overall, our school community helped us to collectively raise almost £200 in support of this essential charity. Thank you to everyone who donated or purchased items; we could not be happier with the amount raised. I would also like to thank the Year 11 students who helped to run the stall for their invaluable support.’  

This year marked the thirty-second year of coffee mornings, with the first having taken place as a one-off event in 1990. Such was its popularity, and its effectiveness at raising funds, that it was rolled out nationally the following year. Since then, these popular events have helped to raise well over £290 million for Macmillan Cancer Support.  

Although the official date of this year’s ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ was Friday 30^th September, the charity encourages people to hold similar events at any time during the year. To support this, Macmillan offer a range of resources as part of a fundraising kit that can be ordered online when you sign-up to take part. The kit includes posters, a collection box, recipe ideas, fundraising games, bunting, balloons and tablecloths.

For further information, or to sign-up to run your own event, please visit https://coffee.macmillan.org.uk

Since its foundation in 1911 by namesake Douglas Macmillan, the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity has grown to be the UK’s leading source of cancer support. They run public campaigns, build partnerships, and influence decision-makers on all cancer-related policies at UK-wide, national and local levels.

Macmillan provides services for people living with cancer at every stage of their cancer experience and are there to provide emotional, practical, physical, and financial support.

As they are 98% funded by voluntary donations, fundraising is essential to make sure they can deliver the vital support that people living with cancer need.

ABOVE: Event organiser Olivia Hunter-Robinson (centre) with Year 11 students (left to right) Kacie Dayman, Robbie Feeney, Elise Culley and Lauren Hudson.