The international seed firm Thompson and Morgan have produced a Sweet Pea named Myfanwy Townsend. Packets of seed are available from Harry Townsend, 6 Manor Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 1LR for a minimum donation of £1.00 (plus postage of 50p).
This Sweet Pea combines the rare qualities of colour and scent. It is a fiery red and orange bi-colour, excellent vigour, a good garden and exhibition variety as well being a good cut flower with four flowers per stem.
Thompson and Morgan have also donated the logo for our charity, for which we are very grateful.
The support has been enormous.
An article about the sweet pea on March 7th 2002 in Garden News, for whom Harry used to write and appear at major Shows where Myfanwy also helped as part of the team, resulted in more than 80 mail order sales.
Our friend Alan Titchmarsh wrote an article about the sweet pea in the Daily Express on Saturday 4th May 2002: as a result, we received 410 letters and sold almost £1,300 worth of seeds. Thanks, Alan!
The seeds are also being sold at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (Kew Gardens), the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley (where in 2002 they planted a 40 yard hedge in their Country Garden, which will look superb), Ventnor Botanic Gardens (Isle of Wight), locally around East Grinstead at Snowhill Garden Centre, Orchard Nursery, Chequer Mead Theatre, Spooner's Bowls Club and Objets d'Art.
DOUBLE CROSSING OF THE GRAND CANYON
We realised that to raise money in the amounts necessary we had to do something out of the ordinary and push back the boundaries of popular imagination.
So Cameron, myself and brother-in-law Peter Clarke climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, raising sponsorship in the process; I then completed the Death Valley Marathon, took part in the 153 mile, 6 day Sahara Marathon des Sables, and 'rowed' a marathon (42,195 metres) on a Concept 2 rowing machine in the gym.
September 4th and 5th was our first major fund raising event, the Rim to Rim crossing of the Grand Canyon. 24 miles in total, 13,000 feet total ascent and descent as we descended 7,000 feet from the North Rim to the Colorado River and then climbed 6,000 feet to the South Rim in temperatures exceeding 120F.
Harry was accompanied by rugby friends Ted Morris, Jim Canavan and Gary Hall; four front row forwards together, plus Ted's wife Carol with Malcolm Garrett-Eynon as support crew.
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Kerrachar Gardens
Are you a garden lover? Are you going on holiday to the far north of Scotland? Then Kerrachar Gardens are the place for you!
Peter Kohn was at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Ashbourne (Derbyshire) with Myfanwy. He and his wife Trish now live in the remote north west highlands of Scotland, in a uniquely beautiful and remote situation on the shores of Loch a Chairn Bhain near Kylesku in Sutherland.
This garden of about 1 hectare has been developed since 1995 on the site of a disused croft; it is one of the few permanently inhabited homes in the UK with no access by road or path.
Instead, you enjoy a thirty minute boat trip from Kylesku (where there is good hotel and overnight accommodation and parking), with breathtaking views along the way and the chance of seeing the seals sea otters and eagles that inhabit the area.
They open their garden from mid May to mid September, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays: and when they heard of Myfanwy's death, they decided to make this their Designated Charity under Scotland's Gardens Scheme.
It is a super gesture, and really appreciated.
If you want to find out more about the garden, visit their website at www.kerrachar.co.uk
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Harry will walk end to end of New Zealand from mid January to late May 2004. Melanoma is very prevalent in New Zealand: details are posted under New Zealand.htm.