Carol's Sacrifice - A Tale from The Mallard

St Georges Beer Festival at the Mallard in Worksop.  It is well past now and was an absolutely cracking festival.  The Ales were plenty and various, the atmosphere alive and happy.  However, down in the cellar bar things were afoot!  The first thing of note was the lack of Carol behind the bar.  She couldn't be ill, I don't think Carol has time for illness so just tells it to bugger off.  So where was she?  A short exploration, well, not exactly exploration, this is the Mallard, a short walk down the steps to the cellar revealed all...  

A while before the St Georges Festival, Carol had been debating having her hair cut.   Just throwing so much hair in the bin seemed wrong.  I believe most Ladies will appreciate that, it takes us a long time to grow our hair, it means something!  So, after chatting with friends and asking them what they thought, they both came up with the same suggestions - Children's Cancer Charity, Little Princess Trust.  After a little Googling and reading online, there was really no question about it.  This would be the right thing.  

Little Princess Trust is a charity who create and provide wigs for children who have lost their hair due to Cancer treatments.  More details can be found on their website here:  http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk

The next step was to approach Wayne Cadman, Landlord of the Mallard.  Local Champion Homebrew Legend, Colin Tweed of Shed brewery donated a pin of beer (36 pints) to be sold and the proceeds donated to charity - had a charity been selected yet?  It turned out it hadn't so Carol told him about the idea and asked about perhaps her having it cut at the festival.  This became the plan.

At 17:30pm on Saturday April the 18th the plan began.  Sponsorship forms were printed and the word was out.  By last orders £165 had been pledged or donated! 

" Customers were coming up to me and giving me money without having to ask them."

By the end of the festival, the auction of Shed Brewery beers had raised a total of £115 and together with the funds raised by Carol this all amounted to a staggering £905!  The generosity of the patrons of the Mallard, staff and friends is simply wonderful and so heartening to see.

When asked why she did all of this, all Carol said was: 

"If you can make someone smile, it's well worth it. It's always good to smile, as others will smile back at you x x x"

£905 worth of hair!

Well done to Carol and everyone who donated! 

If you are reading this blog and you aren't a CAMRA member (why not!?) go to www.camra.org.uk and join the 170,000 other people who think that Beer (and Cider and Perry) is something worth getting excited about!