ONE Whitstone resident has been very busy this year raising money for various charities, just as he has done for the last 33 years.

As per usual, Trevor Tucker has had his diary full organising local events and plant sales.

This year, as with most, he held a variety of plant sales and regrettably organised his last charitable dance.

The first of his fundraisers was to be one of his last, well, the last of his dance and discos. According to Trevor the usual attending crowd are thinning out. He said: “I have put on countless amounts of discos but unfortunately as you get with age, the ‘usual’ attendance gets fewer.

“So I’ve said this was to be my last one, I was kindly sponsored by Arthur Bryant Funeral Services and raised over £500 for the Little Harbour Children’s Hospice South West.”

The event headlined ‘The Texans’ and was a great success.

In 1986 Trevor held his first fundraiser — hosting a coffee morning to raise money for a Leukaemia charity, making a total of £200, explaining his plants would only sell for 5p back then. Fast-forward 33 years and Trevor’s total stands at an impressive £34,589.50 and despite calling time on his dance events, he will be continuing to raise money with his notorious plant sales (now selling plants closer to £5), hoping to surpass the £35,000 mark in 2020.

He said: “Next year I hope to get over the 35 figure. The problem is people will be telling to go to the next one and I’ll be carrying on way into my 90s!”

At 75 years old, Trevor admitted that it ‘gives him something to get up for’. He explained: “I don’t do it for any praise or for any other reason than helping people.

“I am lucky that none of my family have suffered any bad illnesses and when my friend Bob Johns lost his son it inspired me to continue with my efforts.

“I just really enjoy helping people when I can.”

Trevor said he looks at life with the view that ‘prevention is better than a cure’ and wants to help as many children suffering as he can. He was approached at a recent car boot sale where he was selling plants and someone had thought he had given up raising money, he replied: “Have children stopped dying?”

Trevor has fundraised for Children’s Hospice South West the most out of his 16 charities throughout the years, totalling £19,836. The other charities include: Marie Curie, £332; various Leukaemia charities, £590; Clic Sargent, £220; Blind charities, £545.50; Macmillan Nurses, £610.50; British Heart Foundation, £1,781; Cancer Research, £5,001.50; Epilepsy, £2,043; Prostate Cancer, £315; Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, £937; Breast Cancer Awareness, £1,000; Multiple sclerosis, £330; British Red Cross, £120; Disabled Children’s Fund, £603; and the Air Ambulance, £325.

Trevor has lived in Whitstone for 60 years and spent his working life on a farm. Some of his family decided to move away but Trevor loved living where he is, partly because of ‘how friendly people are’. A woman once stopped him in the hairdressers saying, ‘I know you, you’re that man out in Whitstone who raises all the money for charities’, he also recalls a recent birthday where he had 2,500 charity donations sent to him. He said: “You wouldn’t get that anywhere else.”

This summer, Trevor held plant sales at Pendeen car boot. Combining the plant sales and the dance, Trevor was able to send a cheque to the Little Harbour for £1,001.

He didn’t stop there and held a plant sale at his home for Cancer Research UK where he raised an impressive £230. This year he also sold 40 lots at Kivells Auctions in Holsworthy Market raising £112 going to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Trevor added: “I am quite lucky I get a good pension, I don’t have to pay any upkeep to my home so I can afford to buy new seeds to plant to continue making money for charities.

“I have already planted seeds for next year to get ahead, runner beans, tomatoes etcetera.”

Trevor’s garden tends to be full with plants to go towards his sales. He continued: “Someone said to me recently, how do you do it all? I replied, with a great lot of effort!”

Despite leaving his running fundraisers behind him — running from Holsworthy to Bude for £10 a mile in 1988 — Trevor has no doubt he will carry on raising money in any which way he can for charity.