On the 11th February 1858 Bernadette, her sister Toinette and a friend of theirs, Jeanne, went looking for wood on the meadows and led towards “the place where the canal rejoins the River Gave”. They were in front of the Grotto of Massabielle. Toinette and Jeanne crossed the icy water, crying out with the cold; Bernadette hesitated to do this because of her chronic asthma. She heard “a noise like a gust of wind”, but “none of the trees were moving”. “Raising her head, she saw, in a hollow of the rock a small young lady, who looked at her and who smiled at her. This was the first Apparition of the Virgin Mary.

The Middlesbrough Diocesan Lourdes Sick Fund has been in existence since the inception of the Pilgrimage in 1952 and is available specifically for the use of sick pilgrims in Lourdes and to aid any person who is unable to accompany us on pilgrimage due to financial reasons. All help is confidential and agreed by the Spiritual Director of the Pilgrimage.

The cost of taking one of our VIP’s to Lourdes is £550 which like everything else increases by about 5% per year.

The fund has been generously supported in the past and we are extremely grateful for that support, but we do need your help still. For this reason we are launching a new initiative ‘Friends of Lourdes’ where we are requesting a regular commitment from people on a monthly standing order basis. This could be increased by 27% by the use of covenanting which enables the fund to claim the extra funds from the Inland Revenue.

For example if 10 people gave £5.00 per month this would pay for one VIP .

To set up a regular payment to the Middlesbrough Diocesan Lourdes Sick Fund, please complete the attached form and return to Finance Department, Diocese of Middlesbrough, Curial Office, 50a The Avenue, Middlesbrough TS5 6QT.
Registered Charity Number: 233748

Designed in the form of “open arms” like the Rosary Basilica the Accueil Notre-Dame reminds us that, in Lourdes, everyone is made welcome and cared for.