Quiz night organised by Wisbech woman for charitable fund Edith’s Purse sees amazing total raised

A Wisbech woman with terminal cancer has paid tribute to the town’s incredible community after a fundraising event netted more than £3,300.

Emma Barnard's friends, family, and supporters joined for a quiz night at the Legends Sports Bar in Wisbech on Friday, January 18, for what turned out to be a hugely successful event.

It was held in support of Edith’s Purse, a fund set up after Emma's cancer diagnosis last year, that aims to help local families in financial difficulty.

Emma sadly has incurable lung cancer, having already battled breast cancer twice. Her nan Edith Waterfield died of Breast cancer without Emma ever knowing her and she felt it was a fitting tribute to name her charitable effort after her.

Twenty-seven teams took part in the quiz compered by Tommy Kelly, who also drew up the brain-teasing questions.

The evening also included a raffle with over 100 prizes donated by friends, family, and supportive strangers.

Speaking in a video posted to Facebook after the event an exhausted but elated Emma thanked everyone for their support.

Her thanks extended to quiz master Tommy and also to Betty Cunningham, who is well-known in the community for helping good causes.

Emma, who is married to Darren and has three children, described the event as “the most amazing night” having raised £3,327.66.

She praised Tommy and Betty for making it such a great night and said it would not have been the same without them.

She continued: “Wisbech gets such a bad press, but you lot are bloody amazing - the community is out of this world.”

Emma urged her followers to continue to spread the story of Edith’s Purse and said: “It is not all about donating, it is also about educating our community and trying to help people to understand just how dire the situation is for some of our families.”

She said if it had not been for the support of her family and friends then her own family would have been in a difficult position.

“You can be swimming along quite nicely and all of a sudden one of you gets ill and has to pack up work and the other partner has to reduce their hours because they are caring for the person who’s ill, they’re caring for the kids, they’re getting people to appointments so they’re not getting full weeks’ wages in either and you can go downhill so quickly,” said Emma.

She continued: “Don’t judge because you never, ever know what’s around the corner. If everybody helped one person the world would be such a better place. You haven’t got to spend loads and loads of money just support each other, and give what you can do what you can.

“You are bloody awesome and Edith’s Purse is only going to work while has got the support of you lot. I am exhausted, but I am absolutely over the moon I just can't believe the amount of money we have raised.”

Details about Edith’s Purse can be found on the fund’s Facebook page where you can also donate.