Retired nurse celebrates her 70th at Portsmouth Deaf Centre and raises over £1000 for Rowans Hospice and Wessex Cancer Trust

Nancy Dazley, from Cosham, handed over a cheque of £850 to the Rowans Hospice on Wednesday this week, with another £200 donated to Wessex Cancer Trust following a fundraiser organised to celebrate her birthday, on June 10.

Nancy celebrated her 70th birthday with a charity variety show at Portsmouth Deaf Centre in Arundel Street, alongside 80 of her family and friends who came in support.

Nancy said: ‘My late husband was here for four nights before he passed away peacefully, so I wanted to raise some money for them.

‘I told my friends I don’t want any presents, I just want you to buy the raffle and the ticket.’

Nancy lost her husband, Bill Dazley, in November 2017 to pancreatic cancer as he spent his final four nights at the palliative care charity with her by his side.

‘It was very fast, by the time they found it was too late to do anything. From the time they found the lump, it was only seven weeks before he passed away.’

The local community rallied round Nancy in her efforts to organise a fundraiser for the hospice, with friend and retired chef, Margaret Martin, providing food for all 80 guests, donated raffle prizes raising around £200 and the Portsmouth Deaf Centre providing hire of the hall for half the usual cost.

Sue Edmonds also performed at the fundraiser along with her choir, Sing For Life, funded by Wessex Cancer Trust who support those living with the condition as well as Sarah Jeerling with Nancy’s own choir, Howlers from Havelock Community Centre in Southsea.

Nancy was also supported by a local group of which she is a part of, the Red Hat Ladies, who attended and took part in the various games on offer.

Ally Calver, fundraising manager for Rowans, also attended the event and gave a talk about the hospice.

Ally said: ‘It was really nice, it’s always lovely to be able to go to community events and enjoy it and see everyone having a great time. It costs us around £8.9m to run the whole of our charity for a year, we only get 10 per cent in government funding so we are reliant on these sort of events.’