Chocolate egg winner’s sweet treat for sick kids

A GIANT Easter egg won in an annual chocolate shop raffle has helped more charities than originally intended.

SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS: Kenny Walker, of Chocolate Fayre, and Sarah
Anderson, fundraising officer with Buttgerwick Hospice, with giant Easter egg winner
Richard Lewis. Below, four-year-old Isabella Gill helped
Butterwick Hospice staff smash the giant egg

Chocolate Fayre, in Barnard Castle, raised about £750 through an Easter raffle for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) and Cotherstone Pre-School, but now the winner has taken the goodwill further by donating the 3kg egg to Butterwick Hospice.
Patients at the hospice’s children’s unit cracked the egg with a hammer last week and tucked in to the delicious chocolate shards.
Richard Lewis, a regular customer of Chocolate Fayre for the past 15 years, was drawn as the winner on Easter Sunday.
The 75-year-old, who admits a hankering for chocolate, said: “I can’t eat all that.
“Or rather I could eat all that, but I was thinking of sending it to Butterwick Hospice.”
Chocolate Fayre owner Kenny Walker said GNAAS was selected as a beneficiary because it does so much to help people in rural Teesdale, while the pre-school was selected because it is a local good cause. The £750 will go a long way to helping both.
Mr Walker said: “I think that is our best amount yet.
“I am pretty pleased with that. Everyone has put their hand in their pocket and supported in that way.”
Jackie Firth, of Butterwick Hospice, said: “We delivered the egg to the children in the hospice and one of the little girls, four-year-old Isabella Gill, from Hartlepool, was helped by care team staff to break the egg up.
“They have since shared some of it out and have melted the rest and made chocolate crispy cakes with it.”