Fundraiser for girl with brain tumour turned away by The Kingsway Hotel

The group on their 12-mile fancy dress horse ride to raise funds for Molly Howarth

A group raising funds for Molly Howarth, a 16-year-old with a brain tumour, were turned away from The Kingsway Hotel in Rochdale on Saturday (9 October).

The 12-mile fancy dress horse ride was organised by Joanne Howard and Julie Kershaw to raise treatment funds for Molly Howarth, who was diagnosed with the tumour during her GCSEs in June this year.

The small group of horse-riders and horses and carts set off from Littleborough at 12.30pm before passing through Milnrow and Rochdale. They had planned to stop at The Kingsway Hotel before their final destination in Littleborough, The King Bill.

According to the fundraising group, two of their team went ahead to The Kingsway and were told, “your type are not welcome at the pub”.

They were informed by the manager there would be no charity collection permitted at the pub and the police would be called if the fundraisers were to enter the car park.

Julie Kershaw said: “It was on our route to our final stop and we wanted to pull onto the site for drinks and so the children could use the toilets.

“Normally people come out and donate to our fundraisers and people take pictures of everyone in fancy dress.

“We called at The Kingsway last year and there were no problems, except for the horse muck, so we brought shovels to clean up this year.

“We had a brilliant response from everyone and raised over £500 pounds; a good community spirit was in the air until The Kingsway just embarrassed Rochdale.

“We went to The Hornet instead, who were very welcoming. The King Bill in Littleborough, our final destination, kindly put on food free of charge for all who took part in our fundraising for Molly.

“We’d like to thank both The King Bill and The Hornet for their hospitality,” Ms Kershaw said.

“We didn’t have a licence as it was just local people doing this fundraiser.”

When asked about the incident, a spokesperson for The Kingsway Hotel said: “The charity group had no legal documents, no ID badges or licence to prove who they were.

“They didn’t ask at the bar if they could go around collecting- there were no names on the charity buckets.

“Three customers complained about children running and pushing between the tables demanding money.

“It is against company policy to allow charity organisations on the premises and we could have been sacked for gross misconduct. The policy is so strict that if you were asthmatic and needed to use an inhaler, you would have to go outside to use it.”

The Kingsway Hotel is owned by Samuel Smith’s Brewery, which has a company policy so strict that venues are not allowed to play music, pool or offer television.

Funds were initially raised to cover the costs of proton beam therapy for Molly, which meant flying to Florida for treatment, as proton beam therapy treatment is not available in the UK.

Molly, from Balderstone, received the proton beam treatment for the tumour in the summer after the trip and treatments costs were fully funded by the NHS.

She said: “We are very thankful for what the NHS has done for us.”

As her family had no further need for the money they had raised already, they decided to split the funds between Ward 78 at Manchester Children’s Hospital and The Brain Tumour Charity.

Any excess funds raised would also be directed to Ward 78 and The Brain Tumour Charity.