A group of young adults from hospice with life-limiting illnesses enjoyed a Christmas lunch in an Arnold boozer last week as a part of a campaign celebrating the importance of pubs in communities.
The group tucked into a number of traditional festive courses at the Eagles Corner pub on Front Street on Friday (December 13)
The event was organised as part of Heineken’s Brewing Good Cheer campaign which celebrates the important role pubs play in communities by bringing people together for a festive event.
Pubs who take part in the campaign host free events such as Christmas lunches, coffee mornings or even a mince pie and a pint for local charities and community groups.
The invited groups hailed from Nottinghamshire Hospice, which cares for people who have been diagnosed with life-limiting illnesses. It runs a young adults group, specifically aimed at introducing 18-40 year olds to the support that hospices can offer.
Clair Marshall is a young adults key worker at the hospice and accompanied some of the young people to the Christmas lunch at Eagles Corner.
She said: “The lunch today was the perfect way to end the year for our group which is quite new, with people still getting to know each other. It was wonderful for us all to spend time together in a social setting and enjoy a delicious Christmas lunch.
“Heineken’s Brewing Good Cheer campaign is a great initiative and reflects what we are trying to achieve as a group. Young people often feel really isolated especially those who have grown up with life limiting conditions. For them, the world and even their local community can seem like a scary place. Initiatives like this help to develop independence, build confidence and do something that their peers would do.”
On the festive menu for the Brewing Good Cheer lunch was a choice of options for all tastes including traditional Christmas dinner, salmon, a festive burger and mushroom risotto – all washed down with a couple of complementary drinks.
Stephen Martin has run Eagles Corner for two-and-a-half years and said he was delighted to be able to host the lunch.
He said: “Everyone deserves to have a Christmas lunch and open a present on Christmas Day. But we appreciate there are many that don’t have that opportunity for one reason or another. So it was lovely hosting a Christmas lunch on National Christmas Jumper Day for the young people from Nottinghamshire Hospice – wearing our Christmas jumpers of course.
“We hope they enjoyed tucking into our festive menu, including roast turkey and all the trimmings, and we even gave everyone a special gift to open on Christmas Day – although they might not be able to wait that long to open it!”
Lawson Mountstevens, Managing Director for Star Pubs & Bars, Heineken UK said: “We’re delighted to be working with more of our pub licensees than ever for the fourth year of Brewing Good Cheer. In that time, we’ve worked with hundreds of pubs and brought together thousands of people, reminding and inspiring people to use their local. We want to bring people together, to show them exactly what our great pubs have to offer, not just at Christmas time but all year long.”
Heineken’s Brewing Good Cheer campaign is going from strength to strength and is now in its fourth year. In 2018, 100 pubs took part in hosting Christmas lunches for over 2,000 people as part of the initiative. That figure is set to increase to 180 pubs in 2019.
