Macmillan healthcare professional, Maria Leadbeater, is calling on the people of Derbyshire to get involved in Macmillan’s Coffee Morning and support the charity to care for people living with cancer.

Maria provides vital cancer information, practical and emotional support to people living with cancer at the Macmillan Information and Support Centre at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

The countdown to the charity’s annual fundraiser begins as Macmillan Cancer Support announces a predicted loss of around £100million in voluntary income as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

This year, the 30th anniversary of the fundraiser, the charity is asking Derbyshire to find a way to keep the tradition going.

Maria said: “Being diagnosed with cancer is frightening at any time, but even more so now when cancer is in danger of becoming the ‘Forgotten C’. More than ever, people with cancer need practical, emotional and financial support and to know that they will be able to have the treatment they need when they need it.”

“With charities like Macmillan facing huge drops in donations I’d like to ask everyone to do whatever it takes to get involved in coffee morning this year. It may have to be a little different this year but whether you host a socially distanced event in your local park, a virtual get together or something completely different – it all makes a huge difference to the lives of people living with cancer.”

Nationally, Macmillan had expected to bring in about £235m in voluntary donations, but now expects the figure to be closer to £140m.

Hannah Lumb, Macmillan’s fundraising manager, said: “Demand for our cancer support services is greater than ever, but, due to coronavirus, we are facing a significant drop in our income. The truth is that we can’t continue to be there for all the people who need us without your support. That’s why this year it’s so important to not let anything stop your Macmillan coffee morning.”

“Whether you host a coffee morning at home or at work, in the morning or evening, bake a showstopper or buy one of the limited edition products from our partner Marks & Spencer – the money you raise will enable Macmillan to continue providing these vital services. Every Coffee Morning changes lives.”

Macmillan’s work is almost entirely funded by donations and every penny raised at a Coffee Morning helps provide vital support to people with cancer.

Those looking to get involved can sign up at macmillan.org.uk/coffee. The official Coffee Morning is on Friday September 25 but supporters are encouraged to hold their Coffee Morning whenever suits them.

Whether it’s in the garden, the office kitchen, outside the community hall, at school, or on the street for your neighbours to enjoy, make sure to have plenty space and easy access.

Throughout September, Macmillan’s headline partner Marks & Spencer will be selling a selection of Coffee Morning products in M&S food halls – including a bespoke Macmillan Colin the Caterpillar cake and a specially designed travel cup and mug – with 10% of proceeds going to Macmillan.

There will also be a 5p donation from M&S for every hot coffee and slice of cake sold throughout September at the M&S Cafés.

Maria and Sian from Macmillan. Image by Steve Smailes Photography

Chesterfield Museum will be hosting a virtual Local History Day on Saturday 12 September.

The Chesterfield Local History Day is an annual event that normally takes place at Chesterfield Museum with a variety of local and family history societies hosting stands where you can find out more about the societies and hints and tips to help you with your own research.

However, due to the museum being closed, this year’s event will instead be hosted online on the Chesterfield Museum Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chesterfieldmuseum

Councillor Kate Sarvent, cabinet member for town centres and visitor economy, said: “The Chesterfield Local History Day is a great way for anyone to learn more about the history of our town and to discover some great resources that will help them research their family history. I’m proud of the work the team have put in to bring this event online and help make these resources available to everyone because it’s really important that we know our own history.”

Content will be posted on the museum’s Facebook page from 10am throughout the day (Saturday 12 September). Some of the highlights include before and after photos of Chesterfield Canal from Chesterfield Canal Trust, photographs of the old Royal Hospital from Chesterfield Photographic Society and a ‘Hidden Nature’ self-guided tour between the rivers, Hipper and Rother which is a collaboration between Friends of Spital Cemetery and the Don Catchment Rivers Trust.

The Hidden Nature Tour begins at Riverside Retail Park and follows the river Hipper to where it meets the river Rother at the bottom of Spital Cemetery. There’s lots of information about the hidden nature in the cemetery as well as a look of the industrial history along the route and how this links to the cemetery.

Chesterfield and District Family History Society will be also be explaining how to start researching your own family history, which will hopefully inspire you to have a go yourself.

The event has a selection of activities for the whole family and there will be various children’s activities provided by Steamworks. This includes ideas to help build a model of Chesterfield Parish Church Spire, making and testing different bridge structures inspired by Horn’s Bridge, creating a boat to sail on the Chesterfield Canal and exploring how train wheels stay on the track like at Barrow Hill Railway.

The museum staff will also be posting various local history videos and challenging you to guess some mystery objects. One of the museum’s collection officers has created a Historic Walking Trail around the town centre which you can print out and follow to learn about how Chesterfield has changed over the years.

The Museum team are currently appealing for members of the public to share stories, memories, images and items from lockdown, in order to add to the collection and help remember this unprecedented crisis and the impact it has had in Chesterfield.

To find out more and share your stories please contact the team via the Chesterfield Museum Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chesterfieldmuseum or email: museum.collections@chesterfield.gov.uk.

Grab your wands and cloaks, the wizarding world is coming to Chesterfield in an all-new spell-binding Witchcraft and Wizardry adventure event.

Players will embark on a mysterious and magical journey into a world of witchcraft and wizardry plagued by dark magic, where teams of 6 muggles will compete to locate virtual witnesses, crack clues and defeat the darkest entities in the realm.

CluedUpp Detective Days are like giant, outdoor escape games. This spell-binding outdoor adventure game will take your team on a mysterious and magical journey across town. Work with your team-mates to crack the clues, solve the puzzles and save the realm.

CluedUpp’s founder, Tref Griffiths said “Due to the success of our previous games, we wanted to create something completely different and otherworldly. We’re big fans of all things fantasy here at CluedUpp, take the biggest names in fantasy such as Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. We thought it was about time we created our own magical mystery within this genre.”

Taking place entirely via the CluedUpp smartphone app, all you need in order to take part is a phone and a team of 6 fellow witched or wizards to compete in the race to unravel the mystery on September 19th 2020.

Tickets for the event are on sale now. For more information and how to book, click here.

Images by CluedUpp Games.