Going on a tour of the pubs – on a hospital bed

It started as a joke with a firefighter but before long, it had built into a very unusual pub crawl that raised a lot of money for charity.
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The Royal George bed push round Shoreham in 2010 proved a great success, as pub staff and regulars joined forces with firefighters from Shoreham Fire Station for the race.

They started at the pub, in Upper Shoreham Road, and raced hospital beds around the town, raising more than £1,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

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Vanessa Owen, pub manager at The Royal George at the time, organised the event and said she was ‘really pleased’.

Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35307H10Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35307H10
Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35307H10

She explained: “The idea started as a joke with one of the lads from the fire station across the road.”

The bed push was one of a number of fundraising activities over the August bank holiday weekend that year.

As well as supporting the Shoreham Lifeboat Station Appeal and Shoreham firefighters, Vanessa teamed up with Adur East Lions to raise money to support two Shoreham families.

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Vanessa said it was the first time she had organised a big event like this. She planned it to try to involve the whole family and to make it something for the whole of Shoreham.

Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35304H10Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35304H10
Royal George bed push 2010. Picture: Gerald Thompson S35304H10

Vanessa added that she had had great support from the whole community in Shoreham, with local businesses providing prizes for the various competitions and raffles.

There was the sponsored bed push round Shoreham’s pubs on the Saturday and a sponsored karaoke, car cleaning, poker night and stocks on the Sunday and Monday.

The following year, the pub organised a boat push, again with the support of Shoreham firefighters, Shoreham RNLI and Adur East Lions.