Holy Trinity
Sunday, 17 September 2017 (9–1–21 in A)
1260 Plain Bob Doubles
1 Ros Skipper
2 David Belcham
3 Lydia Roberts
4 Debbie Malin
5 Tim Mills (C)
6 Mark D Smith (backstrokes)
  Stephen Jakeman (handstrokes)
Water Aid is a charity set up in 1981 by the UK water industry with three goals - to provide safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene where it doesn’t exist. Earlier this year I was approached by Mark Smith, a colleage at Thames Water, to help him raise funds for a working trip he is making in November to Madagascar, the 3rd largest island in the world with a population of 24 million.
In the UK we take the turning on of a tap and flushing the toilet for granted, but in Madagascar some 11.7 million people have no access to clean water and a staggering 21 million do not have adequate sanitation. Such conditions lead to the spread of waterborne diseases which in turn leads to the deaths of nearly 4,000 children under 5 every year.
Mark visited my home tower of St John at Hackney in East London on our Monday practice to sample bell ringing and see how we might use it to raise some funds to achieve his target of £4,400. He has undertaken numerous challenges to raise money (sky diving, day as a stable lad, pole dancing, curry night, zumba etc.). We concluded that a quarter peal of doubles was realistic if Mark did the backstrokes and I the handstrokes covering. Contact was made with Mark’s local tower at Rayleigh in Essex and a visit to their Tuesday practice proved very positive. And so on Sunday 17th September Mark rang brilliantly for 43 ½ minutes and in doing so raised over £500 + Gift Aid thereby meeting his target. And the really good news is that once this year is over he intends to learn to ring! You can see Mark’s exploits on his justgiveing page using https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-smith1967 where you can still donate. We are very grateful for the cooperation and support of the Church Authorities and the Ringers at Rayleigh, three of whom rang in the quarter.
Stephen Jakeman
£10.00
The Weekly Journal for Church Bell Ringers since 1911