After three sell-out performances of ‘Brynbugadoon’ before Christmas, Usk Panto Players were delighted to have raised over £5,000 for charities. After donations to two small causes in the town, they were delighted to give £2,500 each to Anthony Nolan, and Blood Bike Wales. These were charities chosen by his family in memory of Mike Barber, who had been the set builder and props maker for the Players for nearly 20 years.

Anthony Nolan holds a special place in the family’s hearts as, over 10 years ago, Mike’s daughter Kath benefitted from the stem-cell register that the charity has been running since 1974.

“I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, so my blood was analysed and compared with everyone on the stem-cell register, and fortunately for me a lady in Germany was a perfect match,’ she explained. “Her stem cells were couriered by bike from Germany to Cardiff, and, after a successful transplant I left the hospital a few weeks later with a new blood type and no disease.”

The Anthony Nolan charity has helped over 28,000 people like Kath and anyone between 16 and 30 can join the register by filling in a form and having a cheek swab – it’s as simple as that to potentially save a life.

Mike also developed a rare blood cancer, but was too old to have a stem cell transplant, so was given palliative care which would have involved having blood transfusions every few days. Unfortunately he passed away from complications arising from his condition, but, had he undergone the transfusions, it’s likely that the blood would have been delivered by Blood Bike Wales, a charity which takes all sorts of specimens as well as blood between hospitals at weekends and out-of-hours.

The Panto Players held a post-production party, where each cast member received an ‘Uskar’ for their performance. At the start of the party, Kath received a cheque for the Anthony Nolan charity and Stuart Kramer received a cheque for the Gwent branch of Blood Bike Wales, and explained to everyone the sort of work the charity undertakes.

‘Brynbugadoon’ , written by Julie McGowan, has been one of the best received Usk pantomimes, centred around two good-time girls suddenly finding themselves transported to medieval times. With the help of a magic brooch bequeathed by Merlin, Quiche (Cath Gourdie) and Lorraine (Jackie Williams) help poor Summer Knight (Lucy Campbell) overcome all the other knights at the jousts and win the hand of his true love, Flora (Emily Gourdie), whilst themselves falling for Good Knight (Matt Salter) and Mid-Knight (Scott Hazledine). And there were even some Wombles in the show to help the story along!

‘As usual we had a strong cast who were ably supported by excellent backstage, costume, sound and light, and front of house crews,’ said director Peter McGowan. ‘As well as the audiences having a wonderful time, it was great to raise so much money in Mike’s memory.’