Two of our generous supporters very kindly donated a four foot high, brand new, cuddly Polar Bear for us to use in our fundraising efforts.

With the permission of the Panto’s Director, we were able to hold a “Guess the Name of the Bear” competition during the Cinderella run at the Nomad Theatre.

We took the bear, and our information board, to every performance of the superbly funny show, and spent time selling ‘names’ and chatting with people about Play In A Week. The level of interest shown by the general public was very positive and lots of people stopped to talk and find out more about our production as well as entering the competition. Along with the one-off mystery raffle which we ran for the sold-out Saturday matinee, we raised just over £160!

At the end of the final performance the “name envelope” was opened to reveal the name of the bear as ALGERNON! Unfortunately the happy winner decided that she didn’t have enough room to offer him a ‘forever home’. The next person on the randomly chosen list of entrants generously decided to donate him on to the Royal Marsden Hospital. He arrived at his new home in early January and has joined their fundraising team!!