VENTNOR Lions raised over £700 at their spring fundraiser, with over 40 stalls at Ventnor Winter Gardens last Saturday.

The Lions ran a human one-armed bandit, a tombola, a cake stall and a raffle for which tickets had been sold at Somerfields/Co-op on previous Saturdays. They also had a ‘guess the real egg’ competition.

Val Lockwood, fundraising chairman for the Lions this year, was pleased with how the day had gone.

“It went very well,” said Val. “We had good support despite the current economic climate.

“We usually do a book sale but it’s a heck of a lot of heavy lifting and you have to find somewhere for all the books.

“We’ve got events planned for practically every month this year, including car boot sales, helping at Jazz on the Meadow in the Botanic Gardens later this month and various shows throughout the summer.”

Pitches were also rented out to another 38 stalls in the hall, including Marlene Chester who was selling her hand made greeting cards, needle cases, covered notebooks and facecloth handbags and rabbits.

Marlene makes and sells her wares in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital for whom she owes a debt of gratitude. Her son Michael, who is now 45, spent six months in the children’s hospital after he was born and returned there for operations up until the age of 14.

“We didn’t know if we’d even get him home,” said Marlene. “He’s now been happily married for 22 years and has a lovely wife and has his own gardening business. I do this for Great Ormond Street because I have so much to be grateful for. Last year I raised £985 for the hospital.

“Michael has carried on needing operations – five years ago he had to have another operation on his mouth and jaw and couldn’t eat solid food for three months. But now he’s completely recovered,” said Marlene.

“It was such a shock when he was born with all these problems but we treated him as a normal child. He’s done very well and he’s a perfectionist in his job – we’re really proud of him,” said Marlene who retired from working at Frank James Hospital ten years ago.