Tynedale Branch go Crackers!

Supporters of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign have come up with a festive way to raise funds for the charity – with the release of a single. Muscular Dystrophy Campaign president Sue Barker has bought her copy and we at the charity need as many others to buy the CD in a bid to become the Christmas number one! Christmas Crackers needs as much publicity as possible. In the weeks before Christmas, contact your local radio stations and request Christmas Crackers.

In autumn 2006, members of the Women’s Institute in Hexham, Northumberland, heard a presentation by Tricia Stewart, one of the ‘Calendar Girls’, who posed naked to raise funds for Leukaemia Research.

Kate Clarkson says:"We came up with the idea of a CD for Christmas 2007. I was keen that we should raise money for research into muscular dystrophy as my mother’s uncle and her youngest brother had the condition. We also knew a local youngster affected by the disease and we wanted to support him, his family, and others like him.

"Brian Massey, chair of Tynedale Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, came on board and we received sponsorship from a local building society. We recruited fellow WI member Maureen, a former cabaret performer, as lead singer. We called our group 'the Christmas Crackers', and a local popular group called the Baghdaddies agreed to be our backing group. Myra and I wrote the words to the single, also called Christmas Crackers, set to the tune of Jerusalem, the WI anthem. The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign offered advice and are managing the mail-order sales."

The Christmas Crackers single will be available from record shops, or you can order the single by calling 020 7803 4825 or emailing regions@muscular-dystrophy.org