There has been official recognition in the New Year Honours List of two stalwarts of the Friends of the Cancer Centre in Fermanagh who have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds during almost 40 years of fundraising.
Jim Gamble, a well known window cleaner from Enniskillen and Avril Graham, a retired hospital worker from Ballinamallard, have each been awarded the BEM in the New Year Honours.
Jim, reacting to the award stated: “I’m really pleased and so happy for the charity’s sake. I must be so thankful to the public for their support and I hope it gives great comfort to the cancer sufferers. I’m also thankful I have been able for 39 years to help with the fundraising.
Jim was originally involved in a fundraising committee in Enniskillen for the charity, Friends of Montgomery House to help raise money to buy Northern Ireland’s first specialist MRI scanner which cost around £250,000. Then the charity centralised to become Friends of the Cancer Centre attached to Belfast City Hospital but Jim believes the local group is the only one of its kind still fundraising to make lives better for cancer sufferers.
Jim and his wife, Doreen have two sons, Neville and Brian.
Avril Graham was originally involved in a fundraising committee in Irvinestown and following the amalgamation of the committees, began working with Jim and the other committee members.
She said she is overwhelmed by the generosity of Fermanagh people, many of them donating money in lieu gifts for special birthdays or families presenting donations in lieu of flowers at funerals. She remembers selling “bricks” for the new building to house the scanner and each year there are fundraising activities such as the popular country and western night as well as the proceeds from the annual vintage car run.
Avril said she is particularly pleased with Glenview House, a residential unit with up to 30 bedrooms attached to the City Hospital where Fermanagh patients can stay while undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
“I’m delighted for the charity as it makes people more aware,” she said.
Avril says her husband, Ken, gives her a lot of support in the fundraising. 
Both Jim and Avril were recognised by the Prime Minister, David Cameron with a special award, the Points of Light Award which recognises outstanding individual volunteers who are making a change in their community.
At the time of the award, the then Prime Minister, David Cameron said: “Jim and Avril have worked tirelessly for three decades to support their local cancer centre at Belfast City Hospital. From street collections and auctions to bag packing events in supermarkets and music nights, you have helped to raise over half a million pounds.
They expect to receive the awards in April and receive an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace later in the year.