It is with great sadness that Cannock Soroptimists – and indeed Soroptimists elsewhere in the Region and abroad – mourn the passing of their much loved Dora in her 100th year. Dora Leighton, nee Richards, was known, loved and admired by so many people in the local area and beyond. She was born in Bridgtown, married a local man, Jim Leighton and brought up her family there. She was a teacher of dance, travelling to youth clubs throughout Staffordshire; so many Cannock people were taught to dance by Dora. Even when she stopped teaching she continued to do her dance exercises regularly. In her early 90s she was still able to do the splits: though she said she had to do them at the side of the bed so that she had something to hold onto to get her up! She was most upset with

SI is a world-wide organisation proud of its links overseas and the International aspect of its work. The Cannock club this year centred the theme of its Annual International Night on Australia. President Lynne Tuckley welcomed 70 members and guests, including Regional President Carol Bailey, attending the last formal engagement of her year. The club received greetings from its friendship link club in Perth, W. Australia: one of their members, Past International President of SI Margaret Lobo visited Cannock in the summer. After a meal at the Barns Restaurant members enjoyed a very lively and informative presentation from Dianne Mannering. She talked about the lives and adventures of some of the convicted felons – male and female- who endured a harsh and dangerous voyage resulting in the colonisation of Australia, although originally the transportation had been undertaken to relieve overcrowding of prisons in 18c and

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing in her 100th year of our Honorary Member, the lovely Dora Leighton, on Wednesday evening after a short stay in hospital. She will be greatly missed. But I am many of us have some lovely memories of her humour, resilience and delightful character. The following message sent to all clubs in SI Midland Chase from  Region President Carol Bailey says it all really: The most senior member of SI Midland Chase, Dora Leighton (SI Cannock), passed away peacefully on October 7th in her 100th year. Dora was an active Soroptimist until the end. We will have fond memories of her as she was intellectually astute and always remained interested in Soroptimist matters, giving us the benefit of her wisdom. She will be sadly missed. Kind regards CarolBailey Regional President SIMC

President Lynne Tuckley, SI Cannock, welcomed everyone to the October meeting when members enjoyed a fun evening with East Staffordshire speaker Pat Hall who entertained with her talk called ‘Isn’t Life Funny’. She interspersed funny tales and anecdotes from various speaking engagements with her own hilarious poems and had the audience in fits of laughter throughout. SI Cannock is now looking forward to their annual International Evening which this year has an Australian theme. Guests are welcome on Tuesday October 20th at The Barns, Cocksparrow Lane where the well known speaker, Dianne Mannering is going to talk about the early settlers in Australia who petitioned the British Government to ‘Send Us Some Women’. Tickets cost £18.50 and are available by phoning 07971 494510. A special guest that evening will be Carol Bailey, Region President of SI Midland Chase and a member of SI Wolverhampton –

Carol Bailey, Region President of SI Midland Chase visited Cannock Soroptimists to tell them about the recent International conference held in Istanbul which she had attended as their representative. One of the things she had particularly enjoyed was the opportunity to meet with members of SI from all over the world, seeing and hearing at first hand the wonderful projects being undertaken to enable, educate and empower women and girls on all of our continents. The SI theme for the next four years was confirmed as ‘Educate to Lead’. An important item on the agenda was information on the White Ribbon Campaign which has been running for over 20 years and with which Cannock Soroptimists have been actively involved. This is the campaign to engage men in action to stop domestic violence and to encourage gender equality in the workplace – women cannot do either

Many guests joined members of SI Cannock at their September speaker meeting, one of those guests being David Clay who had been invited along to celebrate his retirement as Restaurant Manager of The Barns. President Lynne Tuckley described David as “our honorary Soroptimister!” David had hosted our meetings and greeted everyone by name and with their favourite drink for the last 10 years. His presence had provided a warm and efficient welcome that will be greatly missed. He lit the Friendship Candle and told everyone how much he appreciated their friendship over the years and their good wishes on his retirement. The speaker was Cannock artist and embroiderer Sylvia Everitt who spoke about and showed slides of her Cannock Millennium Embroideries. She explained that The Bayeux Tapestry was the inspiration for her 11 panels depicting the main historical events, products, people and properties of Staffordshire

One of the charities President of Soroptimist International of Cannock & District Lynne Tuckley has chosen to support this year is St Giles Hospice; she has asked Cannock Friends of St Giles to be involved in events and all monies raised for the Hospice will be donated through the Friends’ group. A well attended coffee morning was held at the home of Soroptimist Jenny Holmes: there was a bring & buy stall; a raffle; scarves and Christmas cards were on sale -and of course, delicious homemade cakes and scones to enjoy! The weather was kind and people were able to enjoy sitting out in the garden to enjoy their coffee and cakes. Members, friends and neighbours went along as did Amanda Milling MP who is a great supporter of SI and of St Giles. There was a super atmosphere and a great buzz of conversation

For the last few years a collection of tents, chairs, beds, sleeping bags, un-opened food etc has been organised by Rotary International at Weston Park in the two days following the V Festival. This year, as in previous years, Soroptimist International of Cannock & District was involved. Festival attendees leave so much behind which, if it can be collected, can be used by people at home and overseas. No matter how many volunteers go along they are never able to collect all of the items left behind. This year 7 Soroptimists from SI Cannock & District and one Soroptimist’s son went along to help with the grand ‘clear-up’ at Weston Park following another very successful, but muddy, V Festival. Wearing wellies and other appropriate clothing members set to work dismantling and re-packing tents, rolling up air beds, collecting chairs, buckets, bowls, sleeping bags and unopened

For many years SI Cannock has been linked with SI Perth, Australia and the clubs have been in regular correspondence. In 2007 a member of SI Perth, Margaret Lobo, became the organisation’s International President – Cannock Soroptimists were so pleased when they had the opportunity to see her take office and to enjoy her company when she visited Cannock in 2008. They were even more thrilled to have the chance to deepen that friendship when Margaret visited Cannock again recently. 20 club members joined her for lunch and spent a very happy few hours chatting about so many things: life in Australia compared to life in the UK; Soroptimists role within the UN; our advocacy and action within issues such as FGM and trafficking; the work we have done internationally to provide birthing facilities where none existed – and so much more! During the visit,

The winner of the competition to find the Midland Chase Inspirational Woman 2015 was announced at the Region AGM held at the Chase Golf Club. 11 Clubs in the Region had each nominated a woman who they felt fulfilled that title and the panel of 5 judges reached their decision following presentations held in June. She is Fiona Ford, nominated by SI Newcastle. Fiona’s own experience with hair loss following chemotherapy inspired her to set up a bespoke service for wig fitting in the Stoke area: she now has a salon called ‘Fresh Hair’ housed in the Royal Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent. Member of SI Newcastle Sandra Mellor introduced Fiona again to Region members, explaining how she had first met her when looking for possible speakers for club meetings. She and all club members realised that Fiona was very special; they were so impressed by her positive