People from Newry, Armagh, Dundalk and further afield gathered together on the 26th March 2022 in the ‘Hall for All’, Newry for an afternoon tea to raise funds for charity, Air Ambulance NI (AANI), in Abbie Nummy’s memory. 

Abbie, aged 14, very sadly passed away on a Saturday afternoon in November 2019 after a tragic accident in the Bernish area, near Newry.  Following the loss of their eldest daughter, Abbie’s father and mother, Andrew and Lorna, asked for donations in lieu of flowers and donated £3700 to AANI in her memory.

After Christmas in 2021, the family wanted to honour their daughter’s memory and support the charity once again, but in a way that would bring the community together, after a difficult couple of years with the COVID 19 pandemic.  Abbie’s mother Lorna explained, “Abbie was such an outgoing, fun and loved child.  She was involved in Damolly football team, went to Excel Gymnastics and had lots of friends and people who knew her.  After a very difficult few years, we wanted to do something that would bring people together in her memory and we thought of an afternoon tea.” 

Lorna went on to explain how incredible the support from the local community had been, “My family, friends and I got our heads together and started pulling together a plan.  We created posters and started putting them round the local community and asking businesses for donations- we were completely overwhelmed by the support.  Almost every single business we went to either took in a collection box to raise funds or donated money or a raffle item, the support has been phenomenal, and we are so grateful.”

Abbie’s father, Andrew, went to on to say, “In the run up to the event, people were coming to our house dropping off donations, raffle items and baked goods for the tea.  We were so well supported.  The afternoon tea in the Hall for All was fantastic.  The amount of food that was baked and bought to the event was amazing.  The venue was beautifully decorated, and it was packed.  We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, and so people sat outside on chairs having their tea, and it was buzzing inside with everyone enjoying the raffle and beautiful music sung by David and Jessica Muldrew, Sinead Heaney, Laurence Bellew, Emily Morrow and Lucia Wilson.  People came from everywhere to support it, it just meant everything to us.”

The event was organised from start to finish in just a couple of months and during that short time a phenomenal £35,401.09 was raised through this event and handed over to Air Ambulance NI in memory of Abbie. 

Kerry Anderson, Head of Fundraising at the charity said, “It is so touching that the Nummy family, friends and community chose to raise funds whilst bringing the community together to remember Abbie.  The impact of this is huge as the considerable donation will fully fund 6 days of the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and likely to enable the medical team to be there for 12 critically ill or injured patients.”

Abbie’s family would like to say a heartfelt thank you to every single person who supported them in helping to organise the event, donated, and came along on the day.