Berwick Cancer Cars 30th Anniversary Celebration Ceilidh is a Huge Success!!

On Saturday 19th November our (now famous!) annual Ceilidh was held in celebration of our 30th Anniversary, and it was another early sell out with over 100 people attending at the Black & Gold.

The evening began with the traditional “welcoming” of the haggis. Fr Thomas Sample leading the proceedings with the Selkirk Grace, Eileen Sutherland bringing in the haggis accompanied by Cancer Cars Chair Andrew Smith on the bagpipes, then a rousing address and toast to the haggis by Jimmy Jamieson!

After everyone had their fill of haggis, neaps and tatties, and dessert cake, Nancy’s Dancers (who had travelled from far and wide to be there!) performed 12 traditional Scottish dances to a mix of traditional and modern tunes. All the girls were an absolute credit to Nancy Steele who herself is such a great friend to our charity and works so hard with her dancers, they all looked and danced brilliantly.

Before the ceilidh launched into full swing, Chair Andrew took up the bagpipes again and, accompanied by the talented Hotscotch Ceilidh Band, treated everyone to a toe-tapping set of reels and jigs (some very faced paced!) The Hotscotch Ceilidh Band lead by Paul Chamberlain, on the accordion with Morag Brown, fiddle and Jim Walker, drums, then entertained (and exhausted!) the crowd with their amazing ceilidh set.

Awards for “Best Dressed” and “Best Dancers” were presented to Joanna Steele, and Evelyn & Ken Mackie who also received one of our specially designed 30th Anniversary medals (our thanks to Mark McLeman, JH Greenwood for sponsoring our anniversary medals).

Cancer Cars Media representative, Roger Peaple, tried his best to ensure nobody escaped the “Berwick Cancer Cars You’ve Been Framed Picture Frame!” What a photogenic bunch our ceilidh attendees were!!

Huge Thanks To….!!!

An evening like this cannot happen without weeks of preparation and planning and without the help of our incredible supporters and businesses who all contributed so much to make our “30th Anniversary Celebration Ceilidh” such a huge success.

Massive well done to Nicola Warren (Cancer Cars Safeguarding Officer) and to Jodi Mace and Kathleen Jamieson for taking the event on with such gusto and for their brilliant organisational skills and helping to raise over £1000 on the night!! Fantastic achievement and great teamwork!!

Big thanks to Diane, Alexa, Tom and Eileen for their help in the kitchen on the day. Our very special thanks to Marie Freeburn of Marie Freeburn Outside Catering, Crosshill Fish and Chip Shop, Chirnside for so kindly donating all the haggis and also to Berwick market stallholder Billy Smith, of B&M Fruits for so kindly donating the neaps and tatties (and to Bob Coull and his team at Coull’s Fish Restaurant, Berwick for use of his tatties peeling machine!) Our enormous gratitude to all the businesses who so generously supplied raffle prizes and to Stephen and his team at the Black & Gold for looking after everyone and helping things run smoothly.

Thanks again to Nancy Steele and her dancers for putting on such a wonderful performance and we could not have asked for a better band than our good friends The Hotscotch Ceilidh Band who were superb – we look forward to welcoming them and everybody back next year for our “2023 Ceilidh!!”