On 24th Sept 2022; 49 ladies, 1 mascot (aka Tane the flat coated retriever) 1 amazing cake & 3 winners, raised £3,000.00 in memory of mum. I think it’s safe to say that the shooting world stepped up & did me proud for my first ever memorial charity competition shoot.
Shani Boswell was my mum, who passed away in April 2021 after living with Myeloma; Blood Cancer since 2015. She was 61.
The Cancer damaged my mums kidneys and bone marrow, which left her needing Dialysis 3 days a week. She told she had 6mths to live & she would never walk again, to which she replied- ‘I don’t think so!’
The local Dialysis unit became like a second family to us over those years, as did the fellow patients on mums bay (aka the ‘naughty bay’). Tragically, we have now lost everyone on that bay; the last one being a young lady called Becky, who passed away suddenly one morning at home a few months after my mum.
I can’t take full credit for coming up with the idea for this shoot; that goes to Kath at BASC Ladies Shooting, who i have got to know since i won their star of target shooting award. Kath really felt it was a good opportunity to celebrate my success & do some fundraising for the unit, and after some ‘persuading’ from her, i set the ball rolling by booking a date in with my favourite clay shooting ground; Sporting Targets in Bedfordshire. Next step was to come up with a design and poster to advertise the event, i handed that over to Sarah at Snewdesigns, with a short brief of it to feature a hen pheasant, which is a nod to my love of game shooting, clays & then poppies, which were my mums favourite flower; i think its safe to say, Sarah did an amazing job.
So i had a date, a ground, a poster, BASC ladies offered to sponser the shoot in the form of branded trophies, so the next suggestion was what about a raffle? I think it’s safe to say, my request for prizes exceeded my expectations and i am truly humbled by the following companies who donated a prize to this shoot:
Quidenham Estate Sim Days, Six Mile Bottom Shoot Sim Days, The Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club, Clare Haggas, Coleman Baines, The Pheasant Pluckers Son, BASC Ladies Shooting Shots & Company, Sportsman Gun Centre, Jack Pyke, Starkey Outdoors, Isotunes Sport, Waring brooke, CENS Digital, Custom Fit Guards, Ardmoor, Eley Hawk, Matt Limb OBE Images, Hartwell Countrywear, Tweedl, Pickwell Paving, Hicks & Hides, Napier of London, Austuin, Glaze & Gordon, Ginger & Jardine, Wild & Game Ltd, Uttings of Norwich, The Oxton Liquer Company, Isle of Wight Distillers, Honesberie Shooting Ground, Kibworth Shooting ground, Sporting Targets & Feather & Fine.
9mths of planning, stressing, sleepless nights, endless emails and a huge fear no one would book on; the ladies & shooting world went above and beyond for me, and showed why i love this sport & people involved in it so much.
The amazing cake was made by a local lady to me; Cakes from Scratch, with an option of gluten free cupcakes as well.
The photographer for the event, was Matt Limb OBE Images.
The ladies have already asked if i will do this event again next year; so watch this space!
Clays2Game_lady 