Marathon broadcast provide charities with donation surprise

Gulshan Radio 106.9FM, based in Parkfields in Wolverhampton, pledged its support to the Express and Star Feed a Family campaign by taking on and completing a fundraising broadcasting marathon.

Station chairman Gulshan Dhingra and his wife Kalwinder Heer Dhingra completed a 12 hour, 12 minute broadcast on Monday, December 12, raising £1,200 for the Feed a Family campaign from donations by local businesses and listeners of the station.

Three city charities were subsequently chosen to receive some of the funds raised, with the Good Shepherd receiving £600 and Compton Care and the Elias Mattu Foundation both receiving £300 each.

Mr Dhingra has completed fundraising marathon broadcasts before, having done an 11 hour marathon in 2020 to raise £1,111.11 for Midland Air Ambulace Charity and said the Express and Star campaign was one they were keen to support with another marathon broadcast.

He said: "We were very happy to support the campaign as we think the paper does a very good job and our committee decided we would give the campaign the support it needed as we think it is very genuine and really helps people who need it most.

"Myself and my wife Kulvinder did the broadcast from 6am to 6pm and people came here to donate by cheque or made online donations and we were very happy to hit our target.

"There is a lot of inflation and issues around the cost of living around here and we are happy to do our part to help charities supporting these communities.

"We would like to thank everyone for their support and for listening to the broadcast and making a donation as the most important thing for us is that charity begins from home."

News of an unexpected windfall was greeted with surprise and job by the three charities, with each saying they had not been expecting the donations, but were very grateful for the kindness shown.

Compton Care community fundraiser Sally Woods received the cheque on behalf of the charity on Monday and said it was a wonderful surprise.

She said: "I was absolutely amazed when I got in this morning and found out about this donation as it was such a wonderful surprise and I'm delighted that they've thought about our patients and families at Compton and it will go a long way to providing our services.

"I think the Express and Star Feed a Family campaign is a fantastic one as we all know that times are really tough for a lot of families at the moment, so to have this support is great.

"It says a lot about the generosity of people and I think people are being very generous with their time and their funds."

Good Shepherd chief executive Tom Hayden said 2022 had been a tough year, so to find out that the service was getting an unexpected donation was heart-warming.

He said: "I think whenever you find out that people have been fundraising for you, it just kind of warms your heart and after what has been a really tough year for our staff and volunteers, when people do things like this, it really means a lot.

"We can only give as much as we can give because of the community giving to us, so donations and fundraising are vital and we couldn't do our work without them.

"We've received support multiple times from the Express and Star Feed a Family campaign, with a 20 per cent increase in the number of people accessing the service, so I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported our service."

For Elias Mattu Foundation founder Asha Mattu, the donation was vital towards helping more families and a real blessing.

She said: "We are really pleased and happy to get this donation as a lot of food goes out during Christmas and the New Year period and we start to think when January comes about where we get food from, so it's been a blessing to receive this.

"We have all been through this horrible time and it's good to see some light at the end of the tunnel, so I would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this.

"They've made a real difference to the families being able to put food on their table at Christmas as, at the moment, it is heat or eat and this donation is going to make a massive difference to us as we would be unable to operate otherwise."