Charity Sporting Dinner 2025
The 17th Frome Lions Charity Sporting Dinner was held at Elmhay Park, Orchardleigh, Frome on the 6th of February.
This year’s chosen charity was the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance. A representative from the charity Charlotte Humber was in attendance and informed the guests that the Air Ambulance provides lifesaving, pre-hospital critical care to those in urgent need across Dorset & Somerset. She said that Since March 2000 the Air Ambulance has responded to emergencies across the region bringing advanced medical care to patients wherever they are. The dedicated teams include expert pilots, critical care practitioners, paramedics, nurses , doctors working together 19 hours a day from 7.00am to 2.00am every day of the year. The Air Ambulance is funded by charity giving. Last year they responded to 2,909 missions, with each mission costing £3,500. 1,397 of these were using the AW169 Helicopter and critical care car & 1,512 were using their outreach cars.
Guest speaker for the night was the former England cricketer Sir Alistair Cook CBE. He is England’s most-capped specialist test batsman and captained the England team in 59 Tests, as well as in 69 ODIs. He is the second highest run-scorer in Test matches for England, and the youngest player to score 12,000 Test runs. He scored a record 33 Test centuries for England and is the first England player to win 50 Test matches.
Also in attendance was Mr Kevin Butcher, CEO of the Richard Oatley foundation who have again this year generously agreed to match fund the amount raised by the Lions. The Late Richard Oatley was a farmer who spent his entire life in the Frome area and was great supporter of charitable causes. At the end of his life, he set up the foundation in his name to support numerous well-known organisations whose work was close to his heart.
Following an auction of donated items conducted by Mr Martyn Hemmett, The 200 guests sat down to a splendid meal and afterwards to hear an engaging talk from the guest speaker in which he regaled the audience about his time and experiences as an England cricketer and the captain of the national side.
The Dinner raised £13,000 and with the Richard Oatley foundation agreeing to match this means that the Lions are able to donate the fantastic sum of £26,000 to the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance charity.
Frome Lions wish to thank all the guests for their attendance, Connor Construction(South-West) Ltd for overall sponsorship of the event, Mr Christopher Vincent and his staff for donating the use of venue, Cooper & Tanner for sponsoring the Auction, Mr Andrew Lee for compering proceedings and Mr Martyn Hemmett for conducting the Auction and finally all the companies and individuals who generously supplied items for the auction and raffle prizes who without such generosity the event would not be possible.
