On Tuesday, 12th October, Soho Farmhouse in West Oxfordshire kindly hosted ‘Pooch’s Project’ a private dinner and auction for over 240 guests in memory of Pooch Johnston and in aid of the Lawrence Home Nursing Team.

It was Pooch’s wish to die at home and the nursing team provided the help and care to make that possible. Nearly two years in the planning, her husband, Robert Johnston, approached LHNT in December 2019 to organise ‘Pooch’s Project’ in his wife’s memory but also to raise awareness of the charity amongst their friends and family and to raise much needed funds.

A silent auction took place during dinner and guests were invited to bid on over 40 lots.  This was followed by a live auction of 5 unique lots with our guest auctioneer, Charlie Brooks.  We are so grateful to everyone who either donated or bid on the silent and live auction lots which included shooting days on the Great Tew and Bantham Estates and a once-in-a-lifetime safari to Lengishu in the heart of Kenya’s Borana Conservancy.

Anna Jo Mathers, the daughter of the charity’s founder, Dr Martin Lawrence and Robert Johnston spoke movingly about the nursing team and our Patron, David Cameron was on hand to give thanks.

We wish to thank everyone who supported us in making the evening the most successful fundraising event in the charity’s history.  We would like to extend our thanks to Marble Audio Visual for their seamless technical production, Nick Jones, CEO of Soho House and Hannah Trevaskis of Soho Farmhouse, Pip Carter for her beautiful illustrations, Mark Swadling’s Superstars and his team from the Silent Auction Company , Jon Wood for the photography and Martin White of Alphacasa for the photo retouching and video editing.