Celebrity Visit

Over the years that I have been at Grove House I have been fortunate enough to meet a number of personalities who have been kind enough to help the hospice.  It's always difficult to find a famous face to help us, and, of course, anyone who is a "name" is always under tremendous pressure to be in the public eye.  But recently we were lucky enough to have Joe McGann, the oldest of the four McGann brothers, and star of the sit com "the Upper Hand" lend us his support.  Normally an agent will be involved in arranging a visit, but this one came about in a much more unconventional way:  One of the staff at our PR Company, Cerco Communications, was looking for a yoga class in St Albans, and came across a teacher called Tamzin, who she noticed, on closer inspection of her biog,  was Joe McGann's wife.  In that brazen way that we have to operate in an "asking" environment she booked her yoga class and then asked Tamzin if she would ask Joe to help us promoting our event activities.  Very quickly, the answer came back as a "yes" and a visit was arranged.

The couple have lived in St Albans for a number of years, and are just in the process of moving slightly further South, but were happy to lend their support to our Midnight Walk.  Joe has agreed to set the walkers off on their 10 miler around the city, and is also keen to help with any publicity that we may need. Even more generously he said he'll dress up as a woman and walk the route on the night himself.  That is, in my opinion,  going beyond the call of duty (although secretly I'm jealous).  Actually, last year we did have a few blokes in drag and  they became some of our top fundraisers.  Blokes normally just want to win, but when they get creative they can really raise some great funds. 

I'm always very sensitive about taking up lots of a celebrity's time when they are helping us, but Joe and Tamzin spent ages with us.  Especially touching was the time spent with the patients in the Day Hospice.  They had a good laugh with everyone, offered to serve tea, and generally got stuck in.  Just another thing that makes it a good day for patients.  So, the team are looking forward to working with our new celebrity. When there is such a lot of enthusiasm for your work from a celebrity it really helps push the event.

Talking of celebrities, I hear a whisper from kathryn, our events fundraiser, that we are in the process of securing John Humphrys for a dinner in March 2011.  That is going to be a real coup for us and should sell out very quickly.