Credit to community for yew tree fundraising success

A LOCAL man has thanked the community for their help in donating yew clippings which were then used to fight cancer and raise money for Broughton Gifford Primary School. 

Tom Vincent recently made an appeal in the Melksham News for yew clippings to be donated by the local community to him. The clippings were then collected by a UK company called Limehurst who use the yew to make cancer treatment drugs including those used in chemotherapy. The clippings are also used as the raw material by pharmaceutical companies for the production of the drugs, used primarily to treat breast and ovarian cancers.

The yew clippings were bought by Limehurst who visited Broughton Gifford to collect the community clippings and paid £181 for them which was then donated to Broughton Gifford Primary School.

Tom said, “The harvest went much better than I expected and we managed to collect just over 450 kgs of yew clippings that got sent off for processing into medication. The clippings raised £181 for the local school which is a great amount.

“I would like to thank the Melksham News readers who got in touch and helped – several people brought their clippings over from Melksham, Bowerhill and Seend and it all helped. I am hoping to do it again next year all being well. It is a great way to help in the fight against cancer but also raise money for a great village school.”