The GEM Appeal Strawberry Sparkle lunch

Katie Hoather, Andrew Nutter and Karen Johnson
The GEM Appeal Strawberry Sparkle lunch

11 More Image(s) In Gallery

The GEM Appeal held their annual Strawberry Sparkle luncheon event on Wednesday (19 August).

Held at Nutters Restaurant, 113 ladies were in attendance at the event, which is now in its eleventh year.

Charity chairwoman Karen Johnson said: “It is a really popular event and is really well attended. Everyone always has a good time and Andrew always does us proud.”

As well as a sit down lunch, the event also included a raffle, a lucky dip, name the Strawberry Sparkle teddy and a clothes and jewellery sale.

The GEM Appeal was founded in 1994 by Karen after she was approached by Consultant Paediatrician Dr Ed Wraith with a request for money to be raised to hopefully extend the Willink Unit at the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital and to fund research into Hunter Syndrome, the disorder that her two sons, Simon and Mike, were dying from.

Karen added: “We have so far raised around £2.6 million but that needs to continue. There is still no cure, but treatment and help is now available.”

The charity is now fundraising for a Tandem Mass Spectrometer machine, which will cost around £250,000.

“Altogether we need about £250,000 for the machine and at the minute we have raised just over £134,000, which is great,” added Karen.

The funds raised by The GEM Appeal comes from supporters with no Government or lottery funding and every penny raised goes directly to the research done at the Willink Unit.