21st July 2025: Annual Speed Shear at Penmaenau Farm, during the Royal Welsh Show
What an amazing evening at the Penmaenau Farm Camping annual Speed Shear on Monday 21st July – this year they chose us as their charity and the total amount raised was a whopping £2004.52!!
Diolch yn fawr, thank you very much, to everyone involved; from everyone at Penmaenau, Jungle John for capturing it all, all our wonderful volunteers and to all those who donated!!
Llongyfarchiadau, congratulations, to all those who competed!!!
Visit https://fb.watch/B1QsithSuu/ to watch the video by Jungle John!
30th April 2025: Buckingham Palace
CEO Lisa Griffiths showing HM King Charles III the photo of Their Majesties visit to the Bracken Trust in Jun 2011.
On the 30th April our CEO, Lisa Griffiths, attended the Reception at Buckingham Palace to recognise the work of community-based cancer care projects. Lisa writes:
“It was an absolute honour to meet his Majesty the King in person and a further honour to meet Her Majesty the Queen. It was a privilege for me to represent our charity The Bracken Trust and it is an occasion and lovely memory I will always treasure.
Buckingham Palace is a fabulous venue; we were shown in through the main entrance and asked to go up the main staircase to the Ball Room which was beautifully decorated and had several impressive hanging chandeliers. We were very well looked after with offers of lovely canapés and drinks. Lorraine Kelly was singing with the Change+Check Choir which is made up of members who were screened for breast cancer after seeing the campaign on Lorraine’s ITV show. The King and Queen were chaperoned by their staff as they mingled with us all and talked to us about our different roles and involvement with community based cancer support, which was the basis for the reception.
On our arrival, everyone received a leaflet which was a message from his Majesty the King. The message touched on his personal experience with cancer and his deeper appreciation of the extraordinary work undertaken by the remarkable organisations and individuals gathered at the reception. His Majesty the Kings comment about ‘moments of kinship that create a community of care’ resonates with us in particular, as we aim to achieve that with the support we give to our patients, their family members, and carers”.
15th April 2025: Rotary Club donation presentation
A huge thank you to Builth Wells Rotary who have generously donated £500 to us this week! Pictured is Vice President Robert Evans and Junior Vice President Hugh Garner who came to present the cheque to our CEO this week!
21st March 2025: National Grid Volunteer Team visit us again!!
We were delighted to welcome back National Grid volunteers to continue their great work in our gardens! National Grid launched an employee volunteering programme for their 6,500 staff earlier last year and are committed to supporting local charities and organisations by delivering more than 14,000 employee volunteering hours every year until 2030.
Lisa Griffiths, our Chief Executive Officer at the Bracken Trust said:
“We are very grateful to National Grid Electricity Distribution staff who volunteered their time to work at our gardens. This type of support makes all the difference to us and helps us to keep the centre running.”
Rhayader Reindeer Run, 14th December 2024
Dinner Dance at the Commodore, 7th December 2024
Some members of the Bracken Trust Yoga Group attended the dinner dance at the Commodore on Saturday 7th December 2024.
They were invited to join a game for charity by A.E. Gough Ltd, at the end of which Michael Gough and all his staff generously donated all the monies made from the game to the Bracken Trust – totalling £105!! Thank you to Michael Gough and all his staff!!
Carols By Candlelight, 1st December 2024
We were delighted to host a wonderfully festive evening of music, with junior harpist Mared Carrod, The Bracken Singers, Ysgol Cefnllys, Dawn Jones, Ysgol Calon Cymru, Voices In Unity, Holly Richards and Rhayader Male Voice Choir. The event was a sellout – and then some – with more and more chairs being added once the doors had opened. It was the perfect evening and raised over £1,100!
Christmas Fayre, 29th November 2024
We had a fabulous turnout at our annual Christmas Fayre on 29th November! As in previous years, we were in the Holy Trinity Church in Llandrindod Wells with a wide variety of gifts and treats….thank you to all those who donated and to our army of amazing volunteers!!!
November 29th 2024: The Staff were busy getting the Trust into the Christmas spirit in time for the Volunteers Lunch!!
Spooky Season Events….2024
26th October 2024: We hosted a 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Spooky Retro Night with music from the fantastic Phil at Carlsboro Sound. The evening was full of fun, dancing and great music and raised over £800 for the Trust.
31st October 2024: Spooky Stroll family treasure hunt
1st November 2024: We rounded off our spooky season with a spooktacular Quiz & Music Bingo at The Greyhound Hotel, Builth Wells, raising over £150!
October 2024: National Grid Volunteer Team doing an amazing job in our gardens!
Lisa Higgins, Team Support at National Grid Electricity Distribution, said: “The Bracken Trust has provided support to people that we know so we were humbled to be able to give something back. All of us that attended over the two volunteering days would definitely do it again and would also like to go back to the Bracken Trust to continue the work that we have started with them.” National Grid launched an employee volunteering programme for their 6,500 staff earlier this year and are committed to supporting local charities and organisations by delivering more than 14,000 employee volunteering hours every year until 2030.
Lisa Griffiths, our Chief Executive Officer at the Bracken Trust said:
“We are very grateful to National Grid Electricity Distribution staff who volunteered their time to work at our gardens. This type of support makes all the difference to us and helps us to keep the centre running.”
8th October 2024: Llandrindod Wells Fire Station Open Evening.
We were delighted to attend Llandrindod Wells Fire Station’s Open Evening on 8th October with our Activities & Events stand, advertising upcoming events in aid of The Bracken Trust.
We also held a raffle and launched our Halloween activities – ‘Name the Dog’ & Halloween Colouring Competition, along with selling some of our rainbow pen merchandise, raising a FANTASTIC £85.
Huge thanks to all those who visited us and well done to the fire crew for putting on a fabulous evening! We can’t wait for next year’s event!
September 2024: Caersws Whist Drive
Caersws Whist Drive, which takes place every Friday raised an astonishing £500 for The Bracken Trust!!
September 2024: Powys Radnor WI Craft Group Donation to The Bracken Trust.
The presentation by the craft group of the Powys Radnor Federation WI, of heart cushions and drip bags, for those recovering from breast cancer, to the Bracken Trust. The inspiration for the project came from Carolyn Grinnell, who had herself received tremendous support from The Bracken Trust, a charitable organisation based in Llandrindod Wells which has been supporting people affected by cancer since 1995. Carolyn, also a member of Howey WI and the PRFWI craft group suggested the project to her fellow craft group members. The results of the donations of material and subsequent work, are not only extremely practical and comfortable to use, the heart cushions and drainage drip bags are attractive too. Special mention was made to the Sylvia’s, Meg, and Chris, for their contributions. The presentation to the Chairman of the Bracken Trust Board Howard Russon and CEO Lisa Griffiths, was made by Jenny Keal the PRFWI Craft Group leader, with the High Sheriff of Powys Lady Kathryn Silk and other guests in attendance. A very pleasurable and productive afternoon was of course rounded off with tea and some delicious cakes.
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