Friends raise £25,000 from Winslow cider sales for Aylesbury Vale youth charity

A group of friends who make cider which they sell on Winslow Farmer’s Market have raised an amazing £25,100 for an Aylesbury Vale youth charity.

Rennies Winslow Cider has donated the money from its profits since 2014 to help Youth Concern provide free counselling and support to under-25s.

The cider-making social enterprise began after a group of local youngsters tragically lost two of their friendship group in 2009.

Lucy Draper, Abbie Neal, Franki Warner, Liz White, Jason Richens and Ashley Morrison would meet up with Steve Rennie, in memory of his son Sam, who sadly died from an undiagnosed heart condition in 2009.

Lucy said: "We’ve had a lot of tragedy in our circle of friends, which has in turn resulted in quite a turbulent late teens, early 20s for a lot of us. Most of us have suffered with mental health problems at one point or another. But for a while making this cider, all of us coming together, it’s kind of given us a reason to stick together as a group, and then through that we’ve been able to help each other and support each other.

“We all kept in touch after Sam passed away and we’d all meet up in Steve’s garden on the anniversary of what would have been his birthday, and we’d have a big barbecue and celebrate his life.”

Steve had an old apple orchard in his garden, and so the idea of making cider in Sam’s memory was born – starting out with very basic equipment.

Lucy said: “We only had one press and it took us ages and ages. And then we hadn’t quite figured out how long we had to leave it in the barrels for before we bottled it, and we bottled it slightly too soon. And Steve woke up one night to hear lots of pops and bangs coming from the shed and all the glass bottles had started exploding.

“But we’ve had many years now to perfect it, and over the years any profits we make go to Youth Concern.”

The group has also recently started supporting a new not-for-profit organisation, the Woad Farm Project, in Hanslope, which brings therapeutic outdoor farming experiences to children faced with trauma and social exclusion.

In addition to the monthly Winslow Farmers’ Market, Rennies Winslow Cider will be at the Winslow Christmas Fair on Thursday, November 24, and is also stocked at the Winslow Farm Deli, North Marston Shop and Quainton Village Shop and is on draught at The George in Winslow.

Lucy, aged 32, added: "We all work full time so doing the cider it’s a labour of love for us, it’s a way for us to all keep in contact. Because you know how it is, as people grow older, they have kids, drift apart.

"But this way it’s a regular way of us all staying in contact with each other and we have fun and it’s all for a good cause as well. We’re helping other young people to hopefully not have the same bad experiences that we had when we were younger.”