‘Faftas’ toast a year of achievement at Fields

The ladies fashion department with their Team Of The Year award. Ref shs 1759-05-14TI. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

The independent department store hosted the event to look back at the past 12 months and announce the cause it wishes to support in 2015.

Staff voted to riase cash for the Sid Valley Memory Café after revealing that they raised £1,206.19 for the Wedding Wishing Well Foundation during 2014.

The foundation was set up by Sidmouth-born wedding planner Naomi Thomas in 2012.

The former Sidmouth College pupil battled breast cancer, but at the age of 26 was told it just days after giving birth to her little boy, Devon, that it had spread to her spine.

Her team organises and arranges weddings for terminally ill people all over the country.

At the event on Tuesday, Naomi thanked the staff for their work to raise money through a series of cake sales and raffles.

The 33-year-old said: “I want to say a massive thank-you to you all for your amazing efforts, you have obviously eaten a lot of cake.

“We cannot do the job that we do without the support of the community.

“There is only so much that you can do.”

The charity has to raise between £1,500 and £6,000 per wedding depending on the needs of couples. Fields’ ladies fashion department was then crowned the best team by directors for their work during the year.

Director Trevor Roberts thanked his staff for their hard work and maintaining the shop’s ethos.

He said: “We are proud to be different, if we started going the way of other retailers throughout the country it [Fields] would be a bland blancmange of nothingness.

“There are very few businesses that can say that they are trading out of the same site for over 200 years.”