Monday 1st May at 1pm started with a race! It was the day of the annual Leyland Duck Race on the River Lostock in Leyland. The race is organised annually by the Leyland Rotary Club and this year the proceeds from the sale of ducks is being donated to 3 charities – St Catherines Hospice, Derian House and Cancer Research UK. Independent Living owner (Mark Booker) is an established member of the Leyland Rotary Club and has supported the event for the last 6 years.
Mark commented “as a member of the Leyland Rotary Club we support 3-4 key events a year, this includes: the Duck Race, Leyland Festival and the Christmas collection and these all raise money for care, perhaps most high profile is St Catherines Hospice. Independent Living financially supports events, in this case we bought a number of ducks for the main and corporate races. The duck race is great because it supports care related charities: young people (Derian House) and it also supports cancer (Cancer Research & St Catherines Hospice). As Independent Living works in Chorley and Leyland we are also supporting both areas as Derian House is in Astley Village, Chorley”.
The event was well attended this year, last year it was raining heavily which caused issues. We had 3 races: “blue balls”, “ducks” and “corporate ducks”! The races were started by the Mayor of South Ribble and the first prize was £100. Mark Booker said “this is the sixth year we haven’t won! However, I don’t mind as the money raised has gone to care related causes in our local community”.
