New Covent Garden’s annual dinner dance raised over £40,000 for charity last Saturday night, as more than 400 diners dug deep to support the market’s long-held chosen causes.
Every year, the dinner and other events have been used to raise cash for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust and Trinity Hospice in Clapham, and this year’s final total will be a record.
Tenants’ association chairman Gary Marshall thanked tenants and guests for their generosity, and said: “As well as seeing so many market people here this evening, it is fantastic to see so many of our customers and suppliers. Without you there would be no market - you are our future and, hopefully, we are also yours.”
Sadly, one of the market’s best-known fruit buyers John Whymark died last month aged 63, and tenants have set up a five-a-side football tournament to honour the memory of a “true market man”, who was also a lifelong Millwall fan.
Some 16 teams lined up for the inaugural John Whymark Memorial Cup, in aid of the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which took place at Beckenham Goals Centre on Wednesday.
Whymark, pictured above, also spent many years working at Borough market. “He was always having a laugh with people and everyone who was lucky enough to meet him loved him. He will be greatly missed but never forgotten,” read a tribute. He leaves Pat, his wife of 44 years, and two daughters, Tracey and Karen.
