Colleagues celebrate fantastic fundraiser

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Staff at Royal Mail gathered on Friday morning to celebrate one of their colleagues handing over another stash of cash to charity.

Amarjit Ryatt, 57, has now raised more than £5,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care, which provided nurses to care for his wife Gurcharn, known to her friends as Sharon, when she was suffering from terminal cancer.

Gurcharn, who taught communication skills at the University of Bedfordshire for 15 years, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 but after treatment was able to return to work in 2006. But she died from the disease in January 2008, aged 51.

On Friday staff and friends who have helped twice-widowed Mr Ryatt raise the fantastic total gathered at the Royal Mail delivery office in Dunstable Road, Luton, to see him hand over the latest cheque, for £1,500, to Marie Curie fundraiser David Greenwood.

Mr Greenwood said: "Amarjit is brilliant - we don't have to do anything, he just phones us up and says he's got some more money for us, and asks us to come and get it. There aren't many people who've raised as much as him on their own.

"It costs the charity £25 an hour to provide nursing, so this money will give us 75 hours of nursing, which is 10 shifts. It's fantastic.

"And the best thing about the money is that it will be spent locally in Bedfordshire, it doesn't just go into a big pot."

Mr Ryatt, who remarried in November, said he was grateful to all of those who had helped him with his fundraising and during Sharon's illness.

"People at Royal Mail have helped me an awful lot, they have been so supportive," he said. "Marie Curie did a very good job looking after my wife, I was so pleased with the care they gave her."

The delivery manager's efforts for charity saw him awarded both a Mayor's Award and a High Sheriff's Award last year in recognition of his efforts.

A collection he organised at a Luton Town FC game last year, with staff going around the Kenilworth Road ground with collection buckets, raised £550 in just 20 minutes for Marie Curie.

Lord Bill McKenzie of Luton, Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department of Work and Pensions and former leader of Luton Borough Council, was also at Friday morning's event.

He said: "People say we are living in a broken society but that's nonsense. Right across the town there's great work going on, like Amarjit doing fantastic stuff for Marie Curie, and being supported by Royal Mail."