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In the summer of 2000, the company decided to use it's
local high profile together with the local press and media,
to launch a fundraising drive for local charities.

We were pleasantly surprised by our customers loyalty,
.despite increased competition and village re-development
work. The decision was made to make a worthwhile
financial contribution with the strong support of our
customers to two local cancer charities, namely the
Foyle Hospice and Marie Curie Cancer Care.
. N.I.C.V.A 'charity oscars' 2001. Pictured above - L to R -
Stephen Kelly.(Marie Curie Cancer Care), Linford Christie (Celebrity),
Jim Mc Laughlin, Toyah Wilcox (Celebrity) and Peter Mc Laughlin
.
After much deliberation, we embarked on a unique
promotion, donating one penny a litre of our profits to the
fight against cancer. In this way we felt all our customers
were being rewarded because they were directly helping
us to help others. The 'others' being a close or extended
member of their own family.

We set ourselves a target of £10,000 (€12,700 euro).
After a few weeks, we realised that we could easily
surpass that. The response was magnificent. After a
few months and a few other fundraising activities in our
sister .company Mary Deeneys, we arrived at a grand
total of just over £25,000 (€31,750 euro).

The whole company was delighted to reach such an
total, after all our efforts. The best was yet to come
however. As a result of the campaign and media
attention, .we were nominated for a charity oscar by
N.I.C.V.A. in .recognition of our work. This was
satisfying as all our .efforts didn't go unnoticed.

On the 31st of May 2001 we attended the awards
ceremony presented by Mr. Paul Clarke and various
celebrities. To our delight we scooped the top award
in our section which was the icing on the cake.