Ride and Stride was happening all around, and beyond, Abingdon today. It was a chance to visit and go inside some unique historic churches – including eleven in Abingdon. It was also a chance to see the beautiful countryside around Abingdon and some lovely village churches; and get exercise while raising money for the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust.

All Saints Methodist Church, in Abingdon, may not look very historic.

but they have reason to thank the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust for a grant towards their recent refurbishment. So they had a notice thanking striders.

In Dry Sandford you will find St Helen’s Church in the parish of St Helen Without. They need to raise money to repair their roof. After a lightening strike in 1961 the roof was incorrectly repaired and they now need £500,000 to repair it properly – a huge amount for them. You can read more at http://www.sthelensdrysandford.org. I expect they will be asking the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust to help.

Save the Children has had 100 years of fund raising, caring and campaigning for underprivileged children and the Abingdon volunteers were in the town centre yesterday.

Yesterday morning, in Abingdon, volunteers moved their stall underneath the County Hall as it was raining. They had a tombola and were selling plants and cakes and had second hand goods. Their quiz is also on sale for £2.

In 2019, among many other causes, Save the Children are helping children return to school following the damage of Typhoon Tembin in the Philippines.

Back in 1919, Europe was still being blockaded and that meant children were starving and there were not enough medical supplies. The founders campaigned to make people aware of the blockade. They then set up a fund to get supplies to the children.

You can find more about Save the Children’s history here. (Thankyou to the British Newspaper Archives for the advert from the Bucks Examiner of  30th May 1919).

Christian Aid Week is from 12th – 18th May, and this morning on Abingdon Market Place there was a Christian Aid stall.

They were selling plants, bric-a-brac and books, and had a petition. I believe Christian Aid is one of the last charities to continue – the once common – door to door charity collections. It is a brave thing to do and is for a good cause.

This year’s appeal is to save the life of mums. Christian Aid are looking to build better health centres in Sierra Leone, where mums can deliver their babies safely. The petition asked our Chancellor to push the IMF to drop Sierra Leone’s debt. The country lacks funds for proper health clinics, health training and enough ambulances. This makes it the most dangerous place in the world to become a mum.

Every February 14th the Abingdon British Heart Foundation (BHF) shop fills its window with red hearts. Each for a small donation.

A lot of them are love notes but some of them are about beating heart disease. BHF are looking to mend broken hearts this Valentine’s Day through research such as stem cell heart ‘patches’.

There are also things to stop you heart getting broken in the first place such as not smoking, keeping to a healthy weight, and keep your blood pressure down.