Radisson Blu Hotel – Liverpool – Saturday 14th May 2016
Attended by 107 delegates including 21 from the North West Region, the theme of the conference was ‘Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much’.
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On the evening prior to conference delegates met for a meal in the hotel which afforded opportunities to network and catch up with old friends.
Start of Conference on Saturday was opened by President Sandy Taylor who received best wishes from Ann Garvie (Immediate Past President, Soroptimist International) and Margaret Elmsley (Federation President).
The first speaker was Mr Nick Beeching from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. His advice on being cautious when travelling with regard to preventative health problems was second to none. His statement of ’Travel broadens the mind and loosens the bowel’ was a warning to us all.
Our second speaker was Dr Paula Briggs Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health, and enlightened the audience with the benefits of HRT during menopause. Enlightening, but many of the delegates had ‘been there done that’. Useful information to pass on to other colleagues and women we work with.
The third speaker was Debbie Shelley from The Trussell Trust and talked about the St Leonards Community Resilience Project. Mainly providing food banks but due to being successful in acquiring lottery funding is now able to offer support in other areas.
Dr Melissa Gladstone was our fourth speaker and her expertise was Early Child Development in Africa her work base was in Malawi. She shared with us the difficulties of trying to educate women in providing nutritional food for their children especially when most were working mums in the fields.
Sue Biggs, Federation Vice President, opened the afternoon session impressing on members the need to be high profile and remain true to the objectives of the organisation. Was, as usual, thought provoking and reminding conference of sustainable development goals.
The last speaker of the day was the proprietor of ‘Choices’ Teresa Jones a registered nurse who had used her experience to provide day care and rehabilitation for Dementia patients. The importance of involving family and friends was the keystone of her presentation.
Last but not least we were delighted with a wonderful singer Danielle Thomas just a superb end to the day.
And now we start looking forward to the next one in 2017!
Susan Parke-Hatton (SI Garstang)