Helping mum raise money for the hospice over 40 years ago: Phyllis Heron’s daughter, Sheila Elliott, remembers a Lancelyn Green Tombola

The Fabulous Phyllis Heron

Picking up the Spring 2023 edition of our Wirral Hospice St John’s newsletter, From The Heart, Sheila Elliott recalled her mum, Phyllis Heron (pictured here on the left), had begun helping to raise funds for the hospice as far back as 1979.

Phyllis was good friends with Mrs Linda Pillow, the wife of Dr Stephen Pillow who was an on-call doctor for the hospice from when it very first opened. The idea of a hospice for Wirral caught Phyllis’ s imagination and, she just had to help.

Phyllis’s daughter Sheila recently paid a visit to the hospice

Of course Phyllis pulled in help from Sheila and her sons Stephen and Gary, niece Jane, and best friend Isabel Todd for their first tombola stall at Lancelyn Green and that was how more than 20 years of supporting and volunteering began.

Phyllis’s tombola was 10p a ticket and was accompanied by a similar ‘lucky dip’ for 20p. People would pull out a piece of ribbon from the Dusty Bin (older readers will recall the iconic character from the prime-time TV show, hosted by Ted Rodgers, 3-2-1) for the prestige prizes.

Sheila remembers a lovely day,

“Mum had canvassed her friends, family and local businesses for all the prizes and people were only too happy to have-a-go for their (then proposed) local hospice. Happy Days!”

Indeed! Phyllis went on to volunteer and support the hospice for many years.

Christmas and Summer fairs, other organised events, charity walks and Light up a Life from its inception in 1996. Sheila showed us her mum’s twenty year ‘long-service’ certificate, awarded in 1999.

The whole family are so proud of those memories and now remember Phyllis, and other family members, every year at Light up a Life.

Phyllis lived to 90 years of age, passing in 2010, and what a full life of service to her community she had lived.

Her contribution will certainly echo in eternity.

Phyllis’s long service award from 1999

Thank you for sharing Sheila. Many thanks to you and your Mum, fabulous Phyllis.

Tombola stall with Dusty Bin ‘Lucky Dip’