“Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”

We are delighted to be the Inner Wheel Club of Dover’s chosen charity for Mary Sherred’s year as President. We spoke to Mary about why she decided to support Music in Hospitals & Care.

“I was a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in the early 1970s and we had a talk by someone from the charity Music in Hospitals, as it was called then. I was really struck by this completely new (to me) way of thinking about the power of music. I played, sang and performed music, people came along and listened and that was basically what the mindset was.

The idea that music could be so empowering for other people was new to me and it stayed in my mind. I’ll be honest, I did nothing about it for the next 50 years until I became President of the Inner Wheel Club. But right at the beginning of my year, I knew this was going to be the charity I wanted to support.”

Mary recently organised a fundraising concert in the grounds of Dover Castle that raised over £1,000 for Music in Hospitals & Care.

“The choir that I sing with happily agreed to do the concert for me, and I’m very grateful for the help I had from various angles to put it all together. An absolute bonus that I really wasn’t expecting was when our treasurer suggested putting collection baskets out. I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to donate on top of their ticket price, but I thought ‘well, nothing ventured nothing gained!’ and we might get an extra 20 or 30 pounds. In the end it was more like an extra two to three hundred pounds. I was amazed by people’s generosity.”

If you are considering organising a fundraising event for Music in Hospitals & Care, visit mihc.org.uk/fundraise to get started with these top tips from Mary:

“Make sure you really do your groundwork. Think of all of the things that could go wrong and all of the things that you hope will go right that you could make easier. Also, choose an activity that you are going to really enjoy doing, because the driving force has got to come from somewhere. It’s got to be something that you really can put your heart into.”