Lucy Drummond is Back and She's Dancing for a Brilliant Cause!

Many of you will remember Lucy and her amazing fundraising efforts (see the links below if you missed them, they are well worth a look!).

Take a look at the poster on this page! Lucy and her brother, Ollie, are taking part in a 12-Hour Danceathon on 29 May at the Wynyard Pub, dancing from 10am right through to 10pm to raise money for Tourette's Action UK, a charity she cares deeply about.

Lucy spoke at Mass

She spoke amazingly today about her passion to help those with Tourette's Syndrome. You can now listen to what she had to say. If you can, please support Lucy and Ollie in their Danceathon for 12 hours to raise money. You can donate using the QR code on the poster on this web page. If I hear you say - what is a QR code - don't worry, at Mass on Saturday 30 May and Sunday 31 May 2026 you will be able to donate at the retiring collection, by which time they will have finished the Danceathon.

A little bit about Tourette's Syndrome

Tourette's is a neurological condition causing involuntary sounds and movements known as tics. It affects far more people than many realise and can make everyday life genuinely difficult, at school, at work and socially. Tourette's Action UK is there to support those living with it and to help others understand it better.

Tics come in two forms. Motor tics are physical movements the person simply cannot control, things like blinking, jerking the head, shrugging the shoulders, or making facial grimaces. Vocal tics are sounds, which might be throat clearing, sniffing, grunting, or in some cases words and phrases. To be diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome a person needs to have had both motor and vocal tics over a period of time. Some people also experience what are known as complex tics, where movements or words are more involved, such as jumping, touching objects repeatedly, or saying whole sentences out of nowhere.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Tourette's is the idea that it always involves shouting swear words. In reality only a small minority of people with Tourette's experience this, and it is just one of many possible vocal tics. For most people living with the condition, the day to day reality is much more about the exhaustion of holding tics in, the anxiety when you can't, and then how other people react when they don't understand what they are seeing or hearing. School can mean being stared at, laughed at, or misunderstood by teachers. Interviews and meetings at work become incredibly stressful. Socially it can lead to isolation, because going out in public when you have no control over your own body or voice takes real courage. Many people with