Billerettes' pull a Christmas cracker for worthy causes

The Billerettes hand over Â£350 to the local ambassador for East Cheshire Hospice, Clare Wood, with the East Cheshire Carnival Royalty Junior Queen Amy Brittain-Cartlidge.

The world-famous majorette troupe - whose motto is ‘One for All and All for Charity’ - has handed out donations to Chapel-en-le-Frith Players, East Cheshire Hospice and Tideswell Male Voice Choir.

Chapel Players, who received £500, are desperately trying to raise funds to install an ‘accessible to all’ toilet in their theatre.

At an expected cost of £24,000 they are faced with an uphill struggle, but the donation from the Billerettes, to add to the funds already raised to date, means they are almost halfway to their target.

Tideswell Male Voice Choir members Phillip Holland, Terry Lomas and John Tyldesley receive a cheque for Â£300 from the Billerettes.

A donation of £350 to East Cheshire Hospice has been made in memory of Billerette Peter Redfern, who died at the hospice earlier this year following a lengthy illness.

The £300 awarded to Tideswell Male Voice Choir will help them to help others.

The prominent male voice choir is heavily involved not in simply making good music, but in raising funds for charity. One of their current charities is the Chapel-based High Peak Hospice.

Profits from their concerts are a major source of funding, but a concert requires an initial outlay, everything from venue hire to publicity.