Fort William M&S staff hosted a coffee morning with a difference in aid of Macmillan’s World’s Biggest coffee Morning last week. They held a coffee morning at the summit of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain, on Monday September 24, with the team of 10 setting off just after first light to take on the 1,345-metre climb. Sam Nugent, store manager at M&S Fort William, said the team had been training for the climb for two months so were delighted to get to the top and hold their coffee morning.
M&S is a long-standing supporter of Macmillan Cancer Support, sponsoring the World’s Biggest coffee Morning, which helps to raise funds for people living with cancer and brings communities closer together, for the ninth consecutive year. Sam said: ‘As well as our climb, we offered M&S baked goods for Caol Community Centre’s coffee morning, which each year sees around 300 members of the local community gather to raise funds for Macmillan.’ Since M&S’s partnership with Macmillan started, M&S customers and colleagues have helped to raise more than £13 million, including £3.5m in the last year alone. The money raised helped to fund 65 Macmillan posts in 2018, bringing essential medical, practical and emotional support to cancer su erers and their families. M&S cafes are also donating five pence from every coffee, tea, herbal tea and cake they sell. Ben Nevis wasn’t the only venue hosting a Macmillan coffee morning, as people across Lochaber joined in with the country-wide fundraising effort.
Village halls, community centres, schools and businesses across the region all hosted versions of the event. Dozens of people gathered at Caol Community Centre for a special event, which included performances from Caol Primary School and St Columba’s RC School choirs, while Banavie Primary School also hosted an event with the pupils selling ra e tickets and serving teas and coffees. Nevis Range also hosted a coffee morning which, if not for the efforts of the M&S Ben Nevis team, could have quali ed as the highest in the country.