A Strabane family say they feel privileged to be in a position to help so many people after recently breaking through a fundraising barrier of over £1million for local charities.
Paul Mullen and his wife Rose Marie and daughter Sarah Jane have combined to host a number of Strictly Come Dancing events locally in the North West over the last 15 years.
The popular annual charity events first came about due to the family’s love of dancing, and have ballooned into a seven figure sum for a variety of local charities.
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Having first got into fundraising through his local parish, St Patrick’s in the Co Tyrone town, Paul says they never believed the scale of money they would be able to raise.
“I’ve been involved with our local parish for as long as I can remember,” Paul says.
“Into adulthood I became part of the fundraising efforts in the parish and the Strictly events took off about fifteen years ago.
“It was through the parish hall that I met my wife, we were running some functions for social dancing and she came down from Derry to some of the dances.
“We ended up getting married and the dancing took a backseat for a while until we had our daughter.
“Strictly Come Dancing came on the TV shortly after and we talked about what we could do to match that here locally.
“It was planned as a one off event but it was so successful that it we couldn’t let it lie, so had a go at it again the next year.
“It was even more successful so we took it to Derry and then various areas around the North West.
“It just grew from there and we have been developing the show ever since. Our last show that we finished raised £54,000 in the end.”
Asked what keeps the family motivated to keep going with their fundraising, Paul adds it was the appreciation they get from helping people that really need it.
“We have raised for more than £1,000,000 for 20 different charities over that time, such as Foyle Hospice, Marie Curie, and NI Chest Heart and Stroke,” he said.
“When you see people’s appreciation when you hand over the money after our events, you realise how much they depend on people like ourselves to fund them.
“It’s a lot of work for them to get money in and it hasn’t been easy for them in the last few years particularly.
“They are really grateful and appreciative to us for the work that we do for them.
“It’s nice to be able to do it with the family, if we were doing it independently we might not be able to do as much.
“As a family we are always together doing it, it’s a joint effort and we really enjoy what we do. It’s a privilege to be able to do what we do.”
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