Dear Bosom Pals and friends,

Thank you once again for your fantastic support for our Bedford Christmas Tree Festival. Our raffle this year raised £2,714, a 17.5% increase on last year. The Cafe raised £1,962, a 14% increase on last year. Overall an amazing total of £23,000 was raised which will be shared evenly again between St Paul’s Church and Bedford Hospital Charity & Friends.

This year monies raised for our local hospital will be spent on refurbishing two dedicated cancer care side rooms on the children’s Riverbank Ward at South Wing. These rooms will allow patients to receive rapid specialist treatment to combat infection without needing to travel to London or Cambridge and will have a special air conditioning supply that prevents infection from entering.

The Charity will also pay for the first year’s salary for a dedicated Cancer Care Nurse Specialist who will work alongside Bedford Hospital’s specialised Paediatric doctors to deliver this care. These new facilities and care will allow a family member to stay with their child while they undergo treatment. This will be a huge step forward in the provision of urgent treatment availability for Bedford children who very sadly are undergoing cancer treatment.

68 schools, charities & firms decorated trees this year and 42 groups took part which amounted to over 1,000 children and adults singing and performing over the five days. An amazing Community showcase of talent for Bedford.

Thank you once again, we couldn’t have done it without your support.
May I wish you and your families a peaceful 2025.

Jean Davies

Plans are already underway for next year’s Christmas Tree Festival and the dates are Wednesday 3rd to Sunday 7th December. The theme is “Christmas Past, Present & Future” celebrating 25 years and a
guesstimate of £250,000 raised over that period. I know that many of you enjoy volunteering at this
community event and love hearing the beautiful sounds of the children’s voices and seeing the glittering trees. It makes a wonderful start to the Christmas Season.

If you would like to volunteer again this year please let me know. It’s good to get it in your diaries early. Again thank you for your support and for the part you played in the success of this event.