Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2013 | Page 20

PROPERTY Karen: I am not retiring just yet! Karen Eeles, affectionately called the ‘fund-raising champion’, recently left the Earl Mountbatten Hospice after 11 years, following a staff shake-up. In an exclusive Island Life interview Karen looks back on her demanding role as fund raising manager, and her highs and lows, during which time she generated millions of pounds for the Hospice. Karen first became involved with EMH in 1997 after her mother died there. Then in 2002 she applied for the job as commu nity fund raiser with the task of raising £1million for a new ward to be built. She recalls: “I was taken on to do the million pound BRICK appeal to build the new ward. “When I started it was very hard to raise money. We did masses of tea parties and then one really big tea party in June. We had a three-year target but we raised the money for the BRICK appeal in two years.” Karen can look back with pride on many fine achievements, but believes possibly the biggest was to 20 www.visitislandlife.com Above: Karen pictured with Keiro n Cooney, Bobbie Newman, Andr ew Gibb, Jane Gibb and Sweetcorn man . P21. Middle left - Elaine Harris (Her dad Bill Bradley was one of the foun ders of Walk the Wight) P.21 Top: Karen with Major Gene ral Martin White P.21 Far Right: Karen pictured with Geoffrey Hughes, David Biles and Karen Sheath P.21 Bottom Left: Karen Pictu red with Alex Dyke & Dame Ellen Macarthu r introduce the ‘Sunflower’ into the Isle of Wight Festival. She explained: “I went to the Festival just to earn the money to pay for the security at the hospice because we have to have security. “John Giddings (Festival promoter) said go along and rattle a few tins. We raised around £300, and we gave out little sunflowers. People kept asking ‘what the heck is this?’, so the following year I brought 1,000 big sunflowers, and we sold them all in one day. Now that has grown to 10,000, and in all we raised over a £100,000 selling sunflowers.” Karen maintains there was never a ‘low point’ in her EMH career, but admits: “There were some things I did which I didn’t like - I had to row a rowing machine in Albany Prison, and that was a bit scary! I also went for an egg-eating contest; I had to be rescued by dog in the middle of the Solent, and I had to do ‘tea at three’ in a lifeboat and I got really seasick.” Karen was responsible for organising the ever-popular