Well, it was a rainy day when VWBro David Thompson, PGJO, APGM and WBro David Poppit, who was deputising for the Worshipful Master of Manchester University Lodge, attended Francis House to present Julie Williams, fundraiser, with a cheque for £2000. An apology was received from the Worshipful Master of Arnold Moreton Lodge No 1649 who was on holiday.

The Mark Benevolent Fund has invited every Mark Lodge within England and Wales to nominate a hospice within their Province to receive a donation of £1000 in recognition of a lifetime of service and dedication to the Crown and the nation by his HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, making an overall total of £1.25 million.

The MBF is the official charity of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, the third largest branch of Freemasonry with over 35,000 members worldwide. H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent, GCVO, has been the President of the Mark Benevolent Fund for over 40 years. The Fund came into existence in 1868 and has disbursed many millions to individual petitioners and over £28m in grants to charities and worthy causes within the wider community.

Rainbow Family Trust was set up as a charity by Sister Aloysius and Father Thomas Mulheran who were concerned about the lack of palliative care for the families of children with a short life expectancy. With Sister’s vision, determination and drive in less than two years the seven-bedroom Francis House was opened in November 1991 by Diana, Princess of Wales, only the fifth children’s hospice to be built in the UK and the World