Cryptic charity quizzers

315. Marian Stringer
316. Neville Mizen

Puzzling duo Marian and Neville, who are both in their late seventies, set up Rainbow Charity Puzzles in 1993 and so far they have raised £451,000 for charity. Every six months, they set a new cryptic puzzle and charge participants at least £1 to enter. Most people donate £10 each time, and currently, the puzzles go out to over 1100 people across the UK, Europe and even Australia. A wide variety of charities have benefited from their initiative – the latest quiz raised money for Heart Research UK.

Neville sets the questions and writes a regular newsletter, whilst Marian marks the answers. The next puzzle is due out in September with the proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Society, and two smaller puzzles will be set in December to raise money for local hospices at Christmas. To try them for yourself you can visit www.rainbowcharitypuzzles.co.uk

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“Marian and Neville have taken their passion for puzzling and turned it into an ingenious fundraising idea. The many hours they have put in to this brilliant initiative have inspired people from the UK to Australia to take part and donate, raising over £400,000 for some very good causes.  I am delighted to recognise their service by making them both UK Points of Light.”

Neville Mizen said: “We were absolutely delighted to receive this award and to be recognised for all our hard work. Both of us love doing puzzles and it gave us the idea that we could be doing it ourselves while raising money for good causes. The best thing is knowing that people enjoy completing the puzzles because we love doing it too.”

MP for Hertford and Stortford Mark Prisk said: “Like a lot of great ideas, this is a simple but highly effective way to raise money for our excellent local hospices. Many congratulations to both Marian and Neville for helping to raise nearly half a million pounds to a cause we will all support.”