I HAVE a soft spot for certain charities and charitable groups that do selfless work in the community.

Then again, there are some charities I just won’t give to under any circumstances.

When possible, I will always donate to cancer and mental health charities and I think the work done by the hospice movement is remarkable.

You only have to spend an hour or two at St Luke’s Hospice, in Winsford, to see that for yourself.

I suppose we are all shaped by our experiences and having had several friends and family members who, sadly, had need of the services provided by various hospices across the north west, I will always have a place in my heart for them.

I have gone on record in the past with my personal views about not donating to animal charities and none of the letters I received from animal lovers will sway me from my opinion, so the less said about that the better.

But I really like and admire the work of the ‘service’ clubs such as Rotary, Lions and Soroptimists.

I have, on a number of occasions, been asked if I would like to join Rotary but have always had to decline.

I have also been a guest at a number of Rotary and Soroptimist meetings and have worked on a number of projects with them from time to time.

I have always found members of these clubs to be thoroughly decent, welcoming human beings whose sole motivation is to improve their community and the lives of people less fortunate than themselves.

There is very little ego on show. None of the people I have dealt with were using their membership for the purpose of self-aggrandisement of to get a foot up on the ladder.

You only have to look through the pages of the Guardian over the years to see some of the truly inspirational work organisations such as Rotary and Lions have done.

The annual swimathon and beer festival have proved tremendously successful over the years with the beer festival a particular favourite of mine.

I recall a very interesting afternoon spent at Northwich Memorial Hall with several glasses of Wobbly Bob.

To the uninitiated, Wobbly Bob is a strong beer made by the Phoenix Brewery and is allegedly named after the brewery cat which only had three legs and was therefore ‘wobbly’.

But I was a little bit shocked to hear that Vale Royal Lions have been forced to cancel its charity fundraising event the Weaver Run because there haven’t been enough registrations to cover the cost of holding the event.

The run was due to take place on Sunday, June 22.

What a blow this must have been for the Lions.

My heart goes out to them and to those people from Sir John Deane’s College, Cheshire Search and Rescue and running clubs who had helped in the organisation of the run.

Undeterred, Vale Royal Lions is already working on plans for its next fundraising event.

What, I wonder, went wrong with this event?

Generally speaking, running events tend to attract a good following and raise a lot of money for charity.

You only have to look at the London Marathon or the Great Manchester Run 10k.

Not that long ago, I went to watch the finish of the Macclesfield half-marathon as a member of my family was taking part to raise money for the East Cheshire Hospice.

I was absolutely staggered at the number of people taking part, of all levels of ability, and for the wide range of charities they were supporting.

I do wonder, however, if we are now starting to suffer from compassion fatigue.

The Government may bang on about the recession being over and how we are now better off than we were before the recession but your experience is your reality and if you don’t feel like the recession is over, it isn’t for you.

One of the side effects, of course, has been an increase in the number of people who now find themselves in need of help and support from charities.

But it’s difficult to give to charity if you still feel your income is being squeezed and your finances are still a bit tight.

I have no way of knowing why the Weaver Run failed to attract enough entrants to make it viable and I suspect a lot of people have already put a lot of effort into it already.

It’s such a shame and I hope Vale Royal Lions can bounce back from this with the next fundraising venture.

They deserve our support.