Rowlands Castle golfing society tees off for a good cause

The Golden Lion Golf Society, which meets in Rowlands Castle, raised the money through a year of fundraising, which included golfing during the day, fireworks at night, and raffles and auctions as well as other activities.

The money raised – £2,340 – will fund four weeks of pre-school level teaching for 36 young, deaf children at the Elizabeth Foundation in Cosham.

A ceremony was held at the Rowlands Castle Golf Club to hand over the cheque to the charity.

Society captain, Darren Galbraith, an air conditioning engineer, said he was delighted to hand over the money to the charity, which he chose as part of his role as captain.

He said: ‘It’s been an absolutely wonderful week. To be able to hand over £2,340 felt like walking on water. I can’t thank club members Des and Paula Ashton enough for all their help with setting everything up.

‘All of the members of the society were shocked. Our little society never imagined we could raise that amount of money. I was born deaf and when I realised how personal I could make the fundraising there was only one charity I could choose.’

The Elizabeth Foundation uses funds gained by donations and fundraisers from the public in order to teach deaf children from baby to pre-school age how to listen and speak.

A spokeswoman from the charity said: ‘A huge thank you to the golf society for the donations, we aren’t government funded and without donations like ones from the Golden Lion Golf Society we simply wouldn’t be able to function.

‘So a huge thank you to them, we honestly didn’t expect that amount of money from them, it’s absolutely fantastic.’

To find out more about how to support The Elizabeth Society, find it online at elizabeth-foundation.org/