Member Article

Couple Launch Daffodil-Inspired Marie Curie Fundraiser To Mark 15,000 Oven Cleans

Husband and wife team Paul and Andrea Clark are organising a springtime fundraiser in aid of Marie Curie to celebrate their milestone 15,000th oven clean.

The Penketh couple, who are also marking 15 years of their oven valeting business Ovenu Warrington, will make a £5 donation to the cancer charity for each oven cleaned during March.

In addition, they will present each client they visit that month with a Marie Curie daffodil pins to raise awareness of its work.

They hit upon the idea as a way of boosting the sum raised by daughter-in-law Helen McSweeney-Atkins, who is tackling September’s Great North Run in aid of Marie Curie.

Paul Clark said: “It’s quite an achievement to have restored the shine to 15,000 ovens over 15 years so we wanted to mark this unusual milestone in a positive way.

“Helen recently found out she has a place in the Great North Run, so we naturally wanted to help her raise as much as possible for Marie Curie.

“Daffodils are the March birth flower, as well as being the symbol of the charity, so it seemed the perfect month to do something.”

Helen McSweeney-Atkins, from St Helens, said: “I have done a couple of other runs, Blackpool Night Run, the Chester Zoo 10k, as well as the RNLI Reindeer Run Challenge and set myself the challenge of the Great North Run and chose Marie Curie as the charity I wanted to support as I have personal connections to it. I’ve already begun training and its fantastic to receive such wonderful support from Paul and Andrea at Ovenu.”

Marie Curie provides care and support for people living with any terminal illness and their families and last year cared for more than 40,000 people across the UK.

Meanwhile, the couple predict their number of completed oven cleans will also shoot up as the traditional spring cleaning period gets underway.

Andrea Clark added: “We expect to be particularly busy in March as people start cleaning their homes from top to bottom, and we hope to raise quite a bit for Marie Curie, as many prefer to leave oven cleaning to the professionals.

“It is one of the most detested of all chores but despite having completed 15,000 oven valets, Paul and I still enjoy and take pride in our work.

“It’s also made all the more enjoyable by the friendships we’ve struck up with our clients, many of whom have been with us since the beginning.”

As well as Warrington, the business covers Great Sankey, Golborne, Partington, Penketh, Lymm, Higher Whitley, Frodsham Widnes, Runcorn, Newton-le-Willows, and surrounding areas.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by News Gathering .