A COFFEE morning in memory of an inspirational upper dale woman has raised more than £1,800 for cancer research fundraisers.
Margaret Thompson, who continued to impress friends and family with her creativity and determination after being left partially disabled by a stroke in 2011, died in June last year aged 75.
To celebrate her life her widower Alan collaborated with Middleton-in-Teesdale fundraiser Nancy Coll to arrange a coffee morning to boost funds for the Teesdale branch of Cancer UK.
It was also the last event to be organised by Ms Coll who is retiring from fundraising and £1,837 was collected, thought to be a record for a coffee morning in Middleton.
Ms Coll said: “Talk about going out with a bang. When Alan rang and gave me the final amount, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was just unbelievable.”
Her previous record had been about £1,100 through an event in March in aid of the village football club.
The bulk of the cash was raised through the raffle which boasted 64 prizes donated by businesses from the village as well as Barnard Castle.
Ms Coll extended her thanks to those who gave prizes as well as those who supported on the day.
Mr Thompson said it was a fitting tribute to his wife who was diagnosed with leukemia almost a decade after suffering the debilitating stroke.
He said: “Poor lass she had struggled with a serious stroke in 2011. Despite that she picked herself up. She could hardly walk but she still used to come to The Witham and do ballet classes. I met some of the ladies and they said they had found out that this lady who’d had a stroke was coming for ballet and if she could do it they could.
“When Margret decided she’d had enough I had this phone call to tell her to carry on because she had been the inspiration to get them going.”
Ms Coll, who had been a friend for more than a decade, added: “Nothing held her up, she was a lovely woman.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
