Thursday 2nd April

The office bearers of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (Northern Ireland Branch) have announced the local charity they are suporting for 2015. Winston Pinkerton, the recently appointed RSPBANI President has chosen ‘Friends of the Cancer Centre’ as the charity for this year’s Pipe Band & Drum Major Championships and was officially launched at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital on Thursday 2nd April.  The first 2015 pipe band competition will be held in Bangor on Saturday 16th May followed by Enniskillen (23rd May), Cookstown (Saturday 6th June), Stormont (Saturday 13th June), Omagh (Saturday 4th July), Glenarm (Saturday 18th July), Moira (Saturday 1st August), Rostrevor (Saturday 8th August) and Portrush (Saturday 22nd August).  The chosen charity for the RSPBANI (Co Down Section) competition in Lurgan Park on Saturday 20th June is the NI Children’s Hospice.

In choosing his 2015 charity, Winston, a recovered cancer patient, said, “I chose ‘Friends of the Cancer Centre’ as this year’s charity because as well as having been treated for cancer myself, I am quite sure that most members of each pipe band in Northern Ireland know of someone affected by cancer who has also been treated at the Cancer Centre.”

Claire Hogarth, Friends of the Cancer Centre’s fundraising manager, said:  “We’re absolutely delighted to be chosen as the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s charity for this year’s Pipe Band and Drum Major Championships and I would like to thank its President, Winston Pinkerton, for nominating Friends of the Cancer Centre.  We are really looking forward to the upcoming competitions and it will be a great opportunity to see such amazing bands in action, as well as raise money for the charity through the collections on the day.  The money we raise through this partnership will make a huge difference to the work that we do and it will have a lasting impact on thousands of local people affected by cancer.”

Pictured in the photo taken at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital on Thursday 2nd April.are Winston Pinkerton (RSPBANI President), Sarah Breen (Fundraising Officer, Friends of the Cancer Centre) and Ian Burrows (RSPBANI Project Manager)