2024 Rockbourne Fair raises record amount for Stars Appeal
The fair raised over £62,000 for Salisbury District Hospital's charity
It's been revealed that the 2024 Rockbourne Fair at Salisbury Racecourse raised a record amount for the Stars Appeal.
£62,081 is being donated to the Salisbury District Hospital Charity, all generated across three days last October.
The cheque was handed over to the Fair's committee team in the hospital's new Imber Ward, which provides dedicated care for elderly people.
The committee was joined by Stars Appeal president, the Earl of Pembroke.
He heaped praise on the team who set up the fair.
"It's extraordinary what the team do every year," he said, adding: "I've organised a few events in the past and I know how difficult it is to actually pull off something of that scale."
It's efforts like this which means the hospital can be kitted out with the best equipment, with the Imber Ward being furnished thanks to £600,000 of Stars Appeal funding.
The committee team is led by Bev Moulding, who told us it was a shock when she was told how much had been raised.
"In the last seven years, it's always been in between 50 and 55 thousand and I've been really happy," she said.
Bev added: "It just makes everything so worthwhile and it's a great sum of money to add to the pot for the Stars Appeal to help the patients and staff of Salisbury District Hospital."
She praised her team, made up of Jane Moulding, Sarah Ewen and Anya Pardoe, saying it takes an enormous amount of work to put the fair together.
Bev said: "Any fair organisers need to have a good team behind you and I have got an amazing team behind me and I think it's something I would never have achieved on my own."
Stars Appeal Events and Community Fundraising Manager, Helena Sinclair, told us it's a mind-blowing amount of money.
"What an incredible amount of money raised!" she told Greatest Hits Radio, adding: "It's been an absolute bumper year for Rockbourne Fair, we cant say thank you enough to the committee!"
Helena told us that fundraising and donations like this 'changes lives'.
Plans for the 2025 Rockbourne Fair are already underway, with the event expected to be run in mid-October.