Willingdon pubs raise more than £5k for toddler who has been given two years to live

The Seven Sisters, The Wheatsheaf, The Red Lion and The British Queen came together in Huggetts Lane on Sunday, August 13, for three-year-old Nellie Oakshott, who was diagnosed with infantile metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and given a life expectancy of five last year.

MLD is an inherited disorder which mainly impacts the 'white matter' of the brain, which leads to a progressive loss of physical and mental skills.

The group was aiming to raise £4,000 as that is the cost of a specialist car seat for Nellie.

Claire Carpenter from The Seven Sisters, which won the tug of war, said: “It was absolutely fantastic. It couldn’t have gone better if I had written it. It was just amazing.”

She added: “It was so well attended, so well supported. It was just brilliant, really good.

“Everybody has been amazing, as well as the companies that have supplied us with t-shirts and banners and everything. The bouncy castle was donated, the band played for nothing. Everybody gave so much.”

Mrs Carpenter, who helped organise the competition, explained that she believes around 200 people attended the event.

She said: “So many people came out to support us. All the pubs’ people came out to support them, even just people who read about it on social media came to show their support, even if they did not drink in the pubs. We brought the bucket round and they were all putting money in left, right and centre and it was amazing. I am still buzzing from it. It was just fantastic.

“We don’t usually talk to the other pubs. Pub life is hard and you have to try for every single customer you get, so we don’t really talk to them, but it has brought us so close together.”

Nellie’s mother Megan Gillett said: “To see that much kindness in the world and seeing that people will come together for your child is really, really lovely.

“It sounds like it will start a traditional where they do it again in the future for other children and that is really lovely that it will carry on.”

Photographer Jon Rigby ([email protected]) said he would produce photographic prints of the event which can be purchased with all proceeds going towards Nellie’s fund.