THE Care Uk Charity, based in Warrington, Northwich, North Wales and Manchester, which was the brainchild of local business woman Nora Carlin, gave a very fitting send off to their 50th container of practical aid for refugees in Lesbos.
The truck left the premises led by the piper, the charity’s Patron, Faisal Rashid and a huge team of volunteers who had spent the morning loading the container.
This was a perfect example of the true spirit of communities working together.
Nora Carlin, Care UK Charity Founder said: “We couldn’t do any of this without our amazing volunteers and the fabulous people of the North West, who donate their unwanted items to be reused, enabling us to help those in need, wherever they are.”
The charity started in a portacabin at Appleton Thorn after Nora had been moved to tears by photographs of a little Syrian boy found drowned on a Turkish beach.
Nora, owner of lifestyle management firm Arley’s Angels, felt she just had to do something to help the refugees pouring out of Syria and trying to reach safety via a perilous voyage across the Mediterranean.
She started simply by setting up a Facebook page appealing for donations to store in her own portacabin prior to sending them on to the Manchester-based charity Syria Relief.
But within hours the response from the public was overwhelming and she realised much more was needed.
Volunteers came forward to help – and donations began to flood in.
Anyone wishing to get involved by either volunteering or contributing to our work both locally and overseas, can do so by emailing [email protected] or by popping into the shops in Northwich or Warrington, or can donate via PayPal at [email protected]
Nora Carlin (left) with Faisal Rashid and volunteers
1 Comment
I remember meeting up with Nora when she came to see me in the Mayor’s parlour, one of the first pieces of advice I gave her was to point across the road at the Warrington Voluntary Action and said go and see Alison who will help sort your charity paper work out. I knew from hard learnt experience the importance of being a registered CIO charity from working in two Warrington Charities.
She invited me to see the operation at Appleton and I was amazed just how organised she and her team were and the amount of work that they were getting through BUT they had to move. Again I was able to help as Chair of the Warrington Visually Impaired People and we provided them with a premises in Town to run their operation for a number of months until they found a new place. Nora made sure that the place was well organised and spotless when they left a trait of her business skills.
During that year she even organised a meeting with my athletics coach BQ and our respective wives at a Thelwall charity fund raiser tea – that was a great moment to me and Burt – who turned around my running career as he did for so many other Warrington athletes – the men’s team in the late 1980’s and beyond did very well as a team in North West Championships.
So here we are 3 years later and Nora has done such incredible work during that time – what a lady so passionate about her cause – but someone who has motivated so many people and overcome so many logistical challenges.