Deeksha Teri

Charity bosses raised almost £10,000 for St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice after taking on 35 brave challenges each last year.

Chief Executive Chris Wheway and Corporate Fundraiser Caroline Swindin raised £9,727 to honour St Barnabas’ 35th birthday year.

Chris gave up sweets for 35 days, walked from Lincoln to Boston, took part in the 5km Colour Dash, spent a day as a warehouse sorter and got his legs waxed, among many others.

Caroline and her friend Becca Hooton tried staying gluten free for 35 days, wore 35 clothing items at once, washed cars for charity and took part in ‘It’s A Knockout‘, among many others.

The trio also cycled from London to Paris in four days as one of the challenges. “When we cycled into Paris after four days of hard work, the sense of achievement was life changing!” Chris said.

The money raised will be used to help the hospice.

“As an organisation, we would not be able to support the people of Lincolnshire who are facing the end of their life, without our hugely generous supporters. I know that every pound raised will make a difference, and that will live with me forever,” said Chris.

Caroline added: “I would like to thank every single person who sponsored us all during 2017. From friends and family to local businesses and even complete strangers, your support throughout the year really kept us going and inspired us to reach the 35 challenge target.”

Here are some highlights from the challenges:

A patchwork quilt that has been put together in memory of hundreds of domestic abuse victims came to Lincoln today.

The Women’s Quilt was on display in at City Hall on Wednesday, January 31 as a part of the UK tour by artist Roxanne Ellis. The quilt raises awareness for the victims of domestic abuse.

Each square on the quilt represents 598 women who were killed by their current or former partners between 2009 and 2015, highlighted by The Femicide Census.

Roxanne is a quilting and patchwork enthusiast and a Labour councillor for Ernehale at Gedling Borough Council.

She told The Lincolnite she was shocked and saddened by the domestic abuse homicide figures. She got the idea of stitching a quilt after she saw a picture of the AIDS quilt. She set up a Facebook page requesting people to come forward and help.

Roxanne said: “It’s been beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s beautiful due to the response people have had and it has been so encouraging and they want to know how they can help. It’s also heartbreaking because of the number of people who have come up to us and have told us about their experience of domestic abuse and many of them had never spoken about it before.

“We are hoping to eventually to get it to be in Victoria and Albert Museum because they know how to care for textiles.”

The national domestic helpline number is 1800-2000-247. The number will not show up in phone bills.