Annual charity lunches prove a recipe for success for St Barnabas House.

Beryl Short presents her cheque for the fantastic sum of money to Chief Executive Hugh Lowson

The Youth Mayor Cam Hughes and Deputy Youth Mayor Brogan Kirkby-Bott were in attendance on the Saturday.

On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 July, Mrs Beryl Short organised, for the third consecutive year, her annual homemade lunches to raise money for St Barnabas House Hospice. Her superb efforts and expert cooking skills managed to raise a staggering £3,000 and all those invited thoroughly enjoyed both the hospitality and the opportunity to get together for such a worthy cause.

Beryl very bravely cooked all meals for the 160 invited guests herself and included a variety of curries as well as a Caribbean dish, a total of eight options for diners to choose from. She coordinated the preparation and cooking of the meals with the generous help of family friends and The Ardington Hotel.

The venue for the lunches was kindly donated by the family behind the Ardington Hotel in Worthing, Janet and Benito. Their beautiful garden and stunning home provided the perfect backdrop for the event. A marquee was erected to protect the guests from the inclement weather that unfortunately blighted the Saturday lunch. However for the Sunday lunch fortunately, for St Barnabas Chief Executive, Hugh Lawson, the rain held off for his attendance. Other guests included were The Mayor of Worthing, Councillor Charles James and his wife Pauline, The Youth Mayor, Cam Hughes, and Deputy Youth Major, Brogan Kirky-Bott, both accompanied by Shirley Robinson-Viney, the Youth Council Facilitator and Youth Major escort, a party of youngsters from the Youth Council who worked very hard to help Beryl with the lunches, and also the former Mayor, Ann Sayers. The lunches included talks about care provided at the hospice from Hospice at Home team member, Rachel Howard as well as a presentation by Hugh.

Said Beryl, 'I thoroughly enjoy organising this lunch year after year for St Barnabas and am particularly pleased with the total amount raised this time round. I was just shy of my £3,000 target after the lunches; however when I was at the Ardington Hotel with friends to watch the Olympic Torch procession, I was delighted to receive a donation of a further £100 to take me to my target figure.'