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Fred Thomas, AKA Skinners Brewery mascot Betty Stogs, is in full training for this year’s London marathon which is now only 7 weeks away.

Fresh off stage from his stint in Sticker’s panto The Frog Prince, by day Fred can be found working at MA Grigg Country Store near Sticker. However, by night Fred has been pounding the streets around Cornwall in all weathers training for this year’s London Marathon which he is running in aid of Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW).

Fred will be running the marathon alongside his ‘Cousin Jacks’ and friends Vivian Bray and Simon Knowles who will be running

Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) will be arresting, charging and putting on trial some well-known business people from the local area who, if found guilty of their entirely fictitious crimes, will have to raise a bail of £999 each to be set free.

Jail and Bail has become an annual fundraising event held by CHSW to raise vital funds for its Little Harbour children’s hospice in St Austell which supports children and families from Plymouth and Cornwall.

Those taking part in the charity’s entertaining Jail and Bail fundraiser at the Guildhall in Plymouth on 15 th March include; Arthur Greg

An exhibition by beginner and experienced artists opens at an art gallery near Wellington on Sunday, March 10.

The ‘Show & Tell’ exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop in Higher Poole is being held to raise money for Children’s Hospice South West.

The work on show has been created by participants on courses run by Wellington artist Claire Western and will showcase a variety of mediums and techniques.

Claire said: “The artists on the courses vary from complete beginners to already competent painters and there has been so much good work done that I think it needs to be seen.

“Lots of people who

The Cholwill family, from Bridgerule, have now been making their wooden red nosed reindeer in aid of Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) for six years.

Their inspiration for creating this fundraising scheme was through the sad loss of their beloved son, brother and uncle, Mark, some years ago. However, little did they realise that the reindeer were going to be such a popular item to buy at Christmas time for so many people.

Six years ago, Colin made his first red nosed reindeer for a charity that has become very special to the Cholwill family, that of Little Harbour the only CHSW hospice in

The community of St Erth will be coming together to celebrate the Cornish daffodil in March when they host their second Spring Festival.

St Erth Parish Church will be home to various displays of Cornish Daffodils which will be on show from 29th – 31 st March. Money raised from the festival will be split between St Erth Parish Church and Little Harbour children’s hospice run by Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW).

This Spring Festival is being organised by and involves the whole village community including St. Erth School, Brownies and other youth groups from the village.

Jill Sharpless, a

Local independent house builder, Devonshire Homes, has raised thousands of pounds for Children’s Hospice South West during a two-year fundraising drive.

The Tiverton-based company raised £25,154.96 to help CHSW care for more than 500 families across the South West, providing respite care and short breaks, as well as emergency, palliative and end-of-life care from the charity's three hospices in North Devon, North Somerset and Cornwall.

Devonshire Homes donated £50 to CHSWfor every open-market sale during 2017 and 2018. Staff also took part in a variety of fundraising events including cycle

RGB Building Supplies’ Barnstaple branch came out on top of a company-wide fundraising event in aid of Children’s Hospice South West.

All 20 branches went head-to-head to see which could raise the most amount of money as part of the charity's £50 Challenge, raising a fantastic £2,568 in total.

But the Barnstaple team topped the leaderboard by raising £538 of the overall total, holding a breakfast morning and power tool raffle, and asking customers to make a donation to guess how many people they could fit into a small RGB van.

Lee Kift, branch manager at RGB Barnstaple, said: “The £50

CHSW’s Charlton Farm hospice in Wraxall has received a grant of £746 from The Provincial Grand Lodge of Somerset Freemasons which comes through the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF).

This is just one of 237 grants to hospices around the country from Freemasons. In total £600,000 will be donated to hospices all over England and Wales this year.

This includes £300,000 which will be distributed to each hospice that receives less than 60 per cent funding from the NHS. A further £300,000 will be provided to individual hospices across England and Wales via Hospice UK, the national charity for

Olympic gold-medallist Amy Williams MBE came to the aid of Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) on Friday (8 th Feb) when she stepped up to host a Q&A with a panel of sporting guests at its first Sports Lunch in the city. Rugby legend David Flatman was due to host the event at the Apex Hotel but had to fly to Rome earlier than anticipated to cover the 6 Nations.

Joining Amy were Team Bath Netballers, Beryl Friday & Rachel Shaw; professional surfer, Laura Crane; Jerry Gill, First Team Manager for Bath City Football Club; and Alan Smith, former Leicester, Arsenal & England Footballer and now Sky

Giving something back offers more than just a feel-good factor. For university students in a new town, lending a helping hand is also a great way to make friends, learn new skills and help their CV stand out from the crowd in a busy jobs market. Volunteering can also provide a welcome break from academia and add an extra dimension to the stereotypical university experience.

To mark Student Volunteering Week 2019, from February 11-17, we spoke to second year Exeter University art history student Niamh O'Riordan-Mitchell about why she volunteers her time at Children’s Hospice South West’s