THE CLUB has given £800 to the Portsmouth branch of the Alzheimer’s Society.

Every Friday morning the charity holds a Singing for the Brain session, a fun and stimulating social activity for sufferers of dementia.

The money handed over by a former club president Pam Grosvenor was raised by raffling a hand-made patchwork quilt at the SIGBI conference.

As well as the quilt, other prizes in the raffle were a cushion cover, a table runner and a carrier bag, all in patchwork.

Around a dozen club members had met once or twice a month for about two years to create the quilt.

Liz Morgan-Lewis, then still SIGBI president, is pictured drawing the winning tickets alongside club president Margaret Smith.

Other prizes in the raffle – a cushion cover, a table runner and a carrier bag, all in patchwork – were won by Margaret Phelan from Bath, Shirley Willae from Torquay and H. Shulver from Southport..

Led by former president Alison Jenkins, pictured left in a red jacket, who did most of the work, around a dozen members had met once or twice a month over two years to create their blue and yellow masterpiece.

The £800 raised will go to the Alzheimer’s Society.

The three-day event is the third to be held at the church and our club tree was one of those that lit up the lovely building. It was decorated by Pam Simcock, a former president and Chelsea Flower Show judge, and featured stars depicting projects that we have worked on, such as our international effort Project Sierra. The tree was topped by a magnificent globe (pictured right)  illustrating our international role, suitably inscribed: A Global Voice for Women.

One of the aims of the festival is to unite the community and it was obvious from the names of the tree sponsors – among them local schools, businesses and organisations such as ours – that this was achieved.

Money raised will go to the St Mary’s “Shaping the Future” Fund.

FIVE club members joined SI Reigate and Banstead and other clubs in the region to have lunch at The Clink Restaurant at HMP High Down in Sutton, Surrey. The restaurant is run by the Clink Charity and gives prisoners the opportunity to learn skills to enable them to work in the hospitality industry on their release.

As HMP High Down is a closed prison there are strict security checks and strict instructions about what can’t be taken into the prison, ranging from the obvious such as mobile phones and knives to the more obscure such as paracetamol and hand wash.

Having been escorted from reception to the restaurant, guests were offered non-alcoholic bucks fizz followed by a splendid three-course meal of deep fried camembert, pork cooked three ways and a delicious sponge flan and homemade vanilla custard. Prisoners prepare and cook the food in an open plan kitchen enabling diners to watch food preparation and prisoners then serve the meal. Clink Charity carry out training with a very small number of paid staff.

Lunch was followed by a talk by Governor Peter Dawson about life in prison and rehabilitation for life outside. There was then a lively question and answer session. Peter explained that the issue of re-offending has become one of the most pressing challenges facing society. Forty nine per cent of prisoners released in the UK re-offend within the first year and for those who serve sentences of less than12 months this increases to 61 per cent. The aim of the Clink Charity is to reduce re-offending rates by training and placing graduates when released into the hospitality industry. So far, 85 prisoners have been or are currently being trained in The Clink Restaurant and 25 have successfully been released into full time employment.

Everyone enjoyed the whole experience in what was a conventional restaurant in a very unconventional setting.

The event attracted around forty members and friends who enjoyed coffee and biscuits and were also able to browse among lots of goods for sale.

A wide selection of items ranging from books, scarves, handbags, Christmas decorations to jewellery and bric-a-brac were on offer. Proceeds from the event will go to local charities.

Pictured are some of those who attended along with president Margaret Smith, centre right, and Pat Hanns, far right.

He challenged the club to answer the question “How much is a life worth?” which had been his focus in his work with NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.  One part of their role was to evaluate new drug treatments for efficacy and cost-effectiveness.  He reminded us that any money for new drug treatments had to be taken away from something else within the NHS capped budget.  The money spent on drugs amounted to £11bn a year, about a tenth of the total NHS spend.

Duncan included a quick biology lesson, to explain the structure of human cells, and the bits of DNA (genes) that cause cancer.  Modern developments in testing (including one advance he mentioned that had only been reported in the US this month) mean that specific chemotherapy drugs can be tailored to target particular defective genes.

But in answer to his question, he explained that NICE had developed a measure called Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY), ranging from full health=1 to dead=0, to compare the relative benefits of different drugs.  In the drug appraisals he had been involved in the allowable cost was set at about £20,000 per QALY, rising to £30,000 by the time he retired.  This tried to take account of the benefit against quality of life measures such as mobility, self care, pain and anxiety, against the potential advantages and disadvantages of drugs, particularly chemotherapy treatments.  This led to a discussion about the value to society of particular patients, such as a young mother rather than an older person, and how rigid the decisions had to be, against a limited set of data on the outcomes from use of the drugs.  Overall, a serious topic explained with plenty of examples and inspiring an interesting debate of the issues.

HELPING to make life more pleasant and providing comfort for hospital patients is the aim of Radio Haslar,  manned  entirely by volunteers.

Peter Turnbull, publicity manager for the station, pictured above with president Margaret Smith, gave an interesting talk on daily life at the broadcaster launched in March 1993.

The service was originally set up to serve Haslar Hospital then in 1996 it was expanded to cover Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

Although Haslar Hospital was closed in 2009 the station continues to thrive and in March this year their new studio opened in Bury House at Thorngate Halls in Gosport.

“It’s still at the proposal stage but the long-term aim is to provide a service for the new Coldeast Community Hospital at Fareham,” said Mr Turnbull.

He explained that as well as broadcasting a variety of programmes for hospital patients and staff they supported other community groups.

“Media studies students at St Vincent College plan to use the new studio to produce programmes,” he said.

And schools and colleges in Gosport and Fareham were able to send students to them for work experience.

It costs around £8,000 a year to run the radio station so they held regular fundraising events and applied for grants where possible.

Thanking him for his talk Rosemary Bell handed Mr Turnbull a cheque for £50 from charity funds raised during president Margaret’s year of office.

A GROUP of elderly folk from Gosport and Southampton were entertained to a tea party at the Wheelhouse overlooking the Solent in Hill Head, Fareham.

The weather was pleasant which added to the enjoyment of 25 visitors and their drivers at the annual event organised in conjunction with Contact the Elderly, the charity that arranges regular Sunday afternoon tea parties for people over 75 who live alone with little or no social support.

The tea was organised by former club president Pat Hanns of Hill Head who thanked everyone who had provided food as well as those who helped on the day.

CLUB members treated a party of youngsters to a day out at Staunton Country Park.

One of our ongoing projects is supporting the women’s refuges in Gosport and Fareham and each summer children living in the homes, and their mothers, are taken on a trip during the school holidays.

Five women and ten children enjoyed the visit and the weather proved ideal for the occasion -sunny with a mild breeze. Staunton Park gives children an opportunity to run free and make a noise. They are able to touch and feed the animals, play in the play area and wander round the lovely walled garden. There are large greenhouses with exotic plants and a pool with huge water lily pads.

A picnic was set up on tables in a quiet secluded area and mums and children sat on picnic rugs to eat: sandwiches, pork pies, sausages, sausage rolls, cakes and muffins baked by members as well as fruit, crisps biscuits and fromage frais – enough to feed an army!! Mums preferred Schloer to coke but the children were happy with water and fruit juice.

Four club members (pictured) and a support worker accompanied the party bringing and setting up the picnic which was supplied and prepared by a number of members. The club paid for the entrance fees to the park from club charity funds but the families were able to make use of a free mini bus and driver supplied by HMS Collingwood for transport to the park.

All had a great time – the gardens were a delight for adults and children. All five families have sent homemade thank you cards saying how much they enjoyed the day.

ALL smiles at Bishop’s Waltham community day where the club held a stall to raise awareness of Soroptimist International and the work we do alongside selling books and hand-made Christmas decorations.

Pictured are Sue Baddeley, membership secretary, right, and Ann Johnson who were fortunate to be doing the morning shift when the weather stayed largely dry.

It was a less lucky situation for Rosemary Coward and Kathleen Durning who took over manning the stall in time to be hit by a torrential downpour that turned them both into “drowned rats”, in Rosemary’s own words.

The bedraggled duo did their best to save the goods on display.

“Unfortunately, about half the books got really wet and others were quite damp,” said Rosemary.

“The damp ones are in my conservatory waiting for the sun to dry them out, the really wet ones I think will have to go to the tip!

“The Christmas decorations are fine and the Soroptimist banner is recovering in the garage.”