Fish eyes and sheep brains on the menu at Wearside care home fundraising meal

Staff at Wearside care home have raised money to take residents on day trips and meals out with a perfectly disgusting fundraiser.

Inspired by a well-known ITV show, 10 staff at Primrose Care Home in Hetton-le-Hole undertook a bushtucker trial type meal.

The menu included acquired tastes such as fish eyes, pig's brain, sheep's heart and the pièce de résistance - bull's testicles. Dessert was salmon ice cream.

Primrose organises regular fundraisers such as raffles, but this time went for a radically different approach with I'm a Carer... Get Me Out of Here, which was a big success raising £1,505.

Residents’ families were keen to see beforehand what was on the menu, but were only told on the night.

Registered manager Melanie Walker said before the event: “We try to go above and beyond. The staff have fundraised before, but never to this level. We’ve got a really, really good team.

“We had a meeting over lunch over what we could do and we suggested a bushtucker trial. But it’s gone from just putting some food colouring in and pretending, to literally having fish eyes.

“The butcher explained how to cook these things, but he said there are some things we can eat raw. I asked him if that made it any better.

“The pig’s brain and sheep’s heart have to be boiled for 20 minutes."

Not preparing a sheep's brain correctly can spoil the taste.

Melanie added: "The fish eyes, liver and bull’s bits can be eaten raw. We have a ‘milkshake’ of cockles, boiled egg and banana, although it might be more of a mousse by the time we eat it.

“We’ve got meals and a drink and everybody is getting the same meal, at the same time.

“The entrée is raw liver. It’s going to be garnished with spinach, although you’re not allowed to eat the spinach as that would be cheating. Then it’s the bull special (raw), followed by sheep’s heart.”

Melanie says the bull’s generous donation can provide four portions, which might be worth bearing in mind with Christmas just around the corner.

The home wishes to thank nearby butchers Parry’s, who generously provided the fine offal.

Speaking after the meal, Melanie said: "It was absolutely disgusting. I'm never doing anything like that again. But it was worth it."