Jaywick club raises thousands for charity after regular customer dies

Sacketts Grove Club, in Jaywick Lane, raised the impressive sum of money for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance with a family fun day. 

The event came after Janet Coull, a long-serving member of the club and well-known customer, passed away.

Charity - a cake decorated for Essex and Herts Air Ambulance (Image: Grove Club)

Denise Grove, who has owned the club for 10 years, said: “One of our long-standing customers who lived in the park suddenly died and the air ambulance team was amazing after CPR brought her back, and took her to the hospital.

“Sadly she passed away a few days later.

“She was an incredibly well-loved member of our Grove family and we wanted to thank the air ambulance team for raising much-needed donations.

“The air ambulance gave the family time to say goodbye. They are such a close family, so it means a lot.”

Missed - Janet Coull (Image: Grove Club)

Graham Coull, Janet's wife of 58 years, described what a wonderful person she was.

He said: "She was quite poorly but she never let it get her down and always went out looking like a million dollars.

"That's why it's really hard to take her stuff to the charity shop.

"She was happy-go-lucky, she really was a lovely nan, a lovely wife and a lovely lady."

Event - people enjoying the busy fun day (Image: Grove Club)

Mr Coull spoke about the incredible sum of money raised by the club and said he  hopes he has made his wife proud. 

"The air ambulance crew did as much as they possibly could and my granddaughter wanted to get enough money to pay for one of their flights.

"We have done that and we're well happy with that.

"It's still a bit of a rollercoaster, but the family and the club have done such a good thing and we have hopefully made her proud."

One customer even donated £2,000 for a defibrillator for the club, which has been used twice already. 

Denise added: “The whole community came together and we had a fabulous day.”