While coronavirus continues to hit charities hard, three generations of the Peters family have bucked the trend by raising thousands of pounds for people with cancer.
As part of their latest efforts, Yvonne Peters from Pontyclun, who is both mum and grandmother to the group, contributed to Macmillan’s coffee morning with a Super Sponge September.
The event, which saw Yvonne baking a different sponge cake every day for the entire month, has helped raise over £1,300 to support people affected by cancer.
Yvonne held the event as an alternative to the traditional Macmillan Coffee Morning, at a time when coronavirus and social distancing has seen the amount of money being raised by the charity’s annual fundraiser continue to drop alarmingly.
But this latest event is just the tip of the iceberg for Yvonne and the tireless fundraising efforts of the Peters family.
It follows close on the heels of another alternative coffee morning, this one organised by Yvonne’s daughter Cerys and her granddaughter Lowri, of Pencoed, who quadrupled their initial fundraising target for their novel idea of a coffee morning ‘drive-through’.
Since 2013, Yvonne, her daughters Cerys and Alyx and her granddaughter Lowri – who was just 13 when she achieved the Young Macmillan Champion Award – have been involved in raising thousands and thousands of pounds to support the work of Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales.
This inspiring fundraising effort has seen three generations of the Peters family complete half marathons, the Llantrisant Walk – which Alyx Peters’ company MPS Healthcare also sponsors to the tune of £3000 every year – Mighty Hike challenges, musical coffee mornings, school fun runs and donations to Macmillan in lieu of wedding presents.
Yvonne is also part of the Pontyclun and District Macmillan Fundraising Group, and has contributed to the groups brilliant efforts to raise well over £200,000 to help people living with cancer in their local community.
When asked what inspires her family’s tireless fundraising efforts, Yvonne said: “It was my husband John initially, but when Cerys’ husband Steve was also more recently diagnosed with throat cancer, we had even more reason to fundraise.
“When my husband John was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013, our Macmillan nurse was one of the best things that ever happened to us, she was brilliant.
“As a family we saw the care that John received through Macmillan and the staff of the Y Bwthyn palliative care unit, and we’ll be forever grateful that it was possible for his final wishes to be granted.
“So that’s why we do it. For us as a family, we do it in memory of John and because we are so grateful that Steve has been given the green light – we want to make sure other people can receive the same care that we did.”
Retired nurse Yvonne has also gone on to help shape ideas for the new Y Bwthyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit – a state of the art unit at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, which opened in 2019.
Richard Pugh, Head of Partnerships for Macmillan Cancer Support said: “Seeing three generations of a family come together to help support people with cancer is both inspiring and truly humbling. I don’t think there is a thing in this world that the army of Peters family fundraisers couldn’t turn into a new fundraising idea.
“I know Yvonne and her family have lost track of all the cakes baked, coffees poured, events attended or organised, and even the total they have raised through the years. But whether it’s a Macmillan nurse, Doctor or any other Macmillan cancer specialist – none of them would be there without the support of people like Yvonne and her family.
“It is people like Yvonne, Cerys, Alyx and Lowri who give us hope for the future during this current crisis.
“We want to be there for everyone affected by cancer. It is people, like the Peters family, who will help make sure we can be.”
