Dream Euro trip

A pub manager was in good spirits after the business boost of a full bar for the Grand National and leisure tonic of winning a trip to Euro Disney. Dave Williams, the manager of the Jellicoe on Canvey, who was rushed off his feet last Saturday as punters watched the horseracing fiasco, said it had not sunk in that a £1 raffle ticket had netted him a dream holiday.

He won three tickets to Euro Disney plus three flight tickets in the raffle to raise money for a new club for the disabled called Business Opportunities for the Physically Handicapped. The winning tickets were pulled out by the two Canvey carnival princesses as there is no carnival queen this year due to lack of interest.

About £2,000 is hoped to have been raised for BOPH, which was set up by Joan Lythgoe of Deepwater Road, Canvey, to raise money for a handicapped people’s workshop. She decided to act because she felt people like her 18-year-old granddaughter Joanne Blackwell are not left with much of a social life when they leave school. She said: “I want to set up a workshop so they can feel like the rest of society.”

A portable building has already been donated and the group is looking for a land site now. The fund-raising effort was a great success, with £440 being pulled in on the day at Gateways alone. There were 19 prizes in all, the other main prizes being a doll’s house, a doll, a clock and a lamp.