'The whole team at NFU Mutuals' Gloucester agency (including the boys!) utilised our baking skills to the full by having a huge bake-off for our annual Charity Cake Sale. This year the agency are supporting local charity 'The Butterfly Garden' (see www.thebutterflygarden.org), so lots of butterfly inspired cakes were offered to local customers and neighbouring offices. We were very proud with to raise £215 for our efforts and overwhelmed by people's generosity in this current financial climate.'

NFU Mutual owes a great deal of its success to their reputation for outstanding customer service and at NFU Mutual Gloucester we like to go the 'extra mile'.  So when Beth was recently out on a Business Insurance renewal visit, she found herself trialing one of her customers' new products so she could get a true understanding of how it all worked. Beth commented that usually we go armed for our appointments with wellies and coats but in the future she might have to review this!

12 of the team at NFU Mutual in Gloucester (including our local Financial Consultant and Claims Inspector) decided to join the 14th Dragon Boat race which took place on a gloomy and wet Sunday in May, organised by CLIC Sargent's Gloucester fundraising committee and The Rotary Club of Gloucester Severn.

Once we'd had our team talk, settled into our boat and worked out how to row 'as one' without completely soaking each other, our races were over and we can proudly say we didn't come last (just!)    We had a lot of fun and hope to have raised over £500 for these two charities.  If you would like to sponsor us please visit www.justgiving.com/NFUMUTUALGLOS

NFU Mutual in Gloucester are delighted to support 'The Butterfly Garden' as our nominated charity for 2011.   

The Butterfly Garden is a local project for people of all ages dealing with disablement of any kind.  It is an educational, therapeutic and recreational scheme, based initially on gardening but now offering so much more.

It caters for those looking to escape the world, those looking to re-enter it and some, who are still just looking.  For further information please visit www.thebutterflygarden.org

Following 25 years of loyal service, the Gloucester branch celebrated Pat Wakeman's retirement.  Faces old and new joined Pat to reminisce over humourous stories of past and present Group Secretaries and how NFU Mutual has changed - when Pat started their branch was a cow shed with 2 members of staff and now we've upgraded to a more glamorous agricultural building with with a team of 12 of us!!

We all agreed that Pat will be a great loss to the branch not only as our glamourous  farmers wife template but also as we all regularly draw upon her local knowledge. We wish Pat a fun packed retirement, full of riding horses and the waves of Devon! 

As promised here are some photos of Robert, James, Richard and Beth taking part in Mud Runner at Eastnor Castle! They all managed to complete the gruelling course in less than 2 hours and as you can see from the photos they enjoyed most of it!!

With a combined effort of this and the whole branch indulging in their cake baking skills for a Friday Cake Sale, we managed to raise over £1,000 for The Red & White Appeal. This is a fantastic effort so a big thank you to everyone who supported us, it has been gratefully appreciated.

If anyone would still like to support us please go to
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/nfumutualgloucester

In 2010, NFU Mutual in Gloucester has chosen to support a charity based at Southampton Hospital, that is presently supporting agent James Witts' family.  The Red & White Appeal's goal is to create a transplant treatment centre of choice for patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders.  

In conjunction with the £5 million that has already been secured by the Department of Health for the brand new extension to the hospital to house state of the art rooms for patients, the Appeal aims to raise an additional £2.2 million to fund a specially designed Day Care Unit for patients. For further information about the Appeal please visit www.redandwhiteappeal.org.

Beth and Belynda attended the 'Gloucestershire Landlord Advice & Expo Day' held recently at the Centaur Centre at Cheltenham Racecourse.

We enjoyed meeting a number of existing NFU Mutual customers and also introduced ourselves and the NFU Mutual Property Owners' insurance policy to some new faces!

The NFU Mutual Gloucester office are pleased to offer their support to one of their largest clients 'Hartpury College' by sponsoring a cross country fence at their upcoming International Horse Trials. Hartpury College provides a beautiful setting to watch this true test of horsemanship and we look forward to seeing our local customers there too, enjoying the spectacle! 

At NFU Mutual in Gloucester we realise the importance of personal referrals and buying locally therefore we are pleased to become a member of 'thebestofgloucester', ensuring where possible we can support the 'buy local' ethos and encourage word of mouth recommendations for local businesses. You may see the Agents and Sales Team's smiling faces appear on literature locally, encouraging you to 'spread the word'!

NFU Mutual in Gloucester are delighted to support Frampton Country Fair in their Silver Jubilee year on 12th September 2010. Over the last 25 years they have focussed on encouraging people to experience the 'The Living Working Countryside' and as a non-profit organisation our sponsorship will help them support charities and good causes relating to the countryside and the local area. For further information please visit www.framptoncountryfair.co.uk.

Robert Brooks, Agent at NFU Mutual Gloucester, also wears many other hats one of which is the Secretary for the Gloucestershire R.A.B.I. The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution is the farming charity in England and Wales that provides financial and practical support to members of the farming community who are facing hardship. To support R.A.B.I in celebrating it's 150th anniversary he has signed up to participate in 'The British 10k London Run' on 11th July. If you would like to support Robert in his run, please email him at robert_brooks@nfumutual.co.uk. Further information about the R.A.B.I is available at www.rabi.org.uk.

Left: Robert Brooks (Agent), Jeremy and Clare Wheeler (Local farmers and insureds) in training for the big event!

NFU Mutual's sponsorship at Gloucester Rugby Club allowed us to be involved with the promotion of the Clubs' new strip. So it was with great excitement that a few of our local farmer's children attended the hallowed turf at Kingsholm to be part of the press day and get to stand muscle to muscle with the team! The day ended particularly well with the players signing the children's rugby balls - a much treasured memento to remember the day!