While most people in Lincoln were putting up their Christmas decorations this weekend, the Merry Macs were decorating a large tree with the memories of loved ones affected by cancer.
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The Macmillan Tree of Lights came back for its fifth year allowing the public to write a message and put up a bucket with a little light inside on the tree to remember and celebrate their loved ones.
There were 220 buckets to put up on the tree this year, with some being pre-ordered and others being written on Saturday. If you haven’t seen the tree already, it can be founded opposite Boots in the St Marks shopping area.
One message on the tree reads “For my AWESOME Dad x Miss you x”, with many more to the same affect.
Another reads “For the Macmillan Nurses who have loved and looked after me!! xxx”
The founder of the Merry Macs who organised the event, Fiona Goldsby, told me that “one of our ladies broke into tears about it” as each volunteer that was at the event had some personal connection to cancer.
Emma, a volunteer, explained to me that her beautiful silver hair wasn’t her real hair; she was in fact wearing a wig after battling breast cancer in 2015. She went on to say that it has unfortunately come back.
Emma also said that volunteering with the Merry Macs who fundraise for Macmillan Cancer Support is “like giving back after everything and support they’ve given my family”.
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The work of Macmillan is very much appreciated by all these people that have put up a candle on the Tree of Lights. And Fiona went on to say that the money raised from the tree is going towards the new centre being built up at the Lincoln Hospital that is new this year. It will be open early 2020.
This was also the first year the event had a choir. But it wasn’t just one choir either, it was a mixture of 3. The Vocal Authority and Ermine Voices who are Lincoln based, as well as the Treble Cliff Choir, from Navenby.
They even got me singing with them as they wished everyone a Merry Christmas before they finished their set for the day.
The tree will be taken down around the 7th January, allowing the memory of our loved ones to be around all Christmas season.