CLUB members were given an insight into the enormous amount of planning and work that had gone into the Dickens 2012 exhibition being held at Portsmouth museum this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth in the city. Rosalinda Hardiman, collections manager at the museum and a club member, said that the idea for the “A Tale of One City” exhibition was first mooted six years ago. The fascinating number of items on show offers an insight into the lives of ordinary people who lived in the city in Dickens’ day related through themes such as crime, work, money, health, education and love. Exhibits range from projects created by community groups in Portsmouth to something particularly special – part of the original manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby, the only Dickens book to mention Portsmouth. This was borrowed from the British Library in London

The 9th lean lunch was held in Whiteley, Fareham this Saturday. It was originally set up by 6 local Soroptimist clubs to promote the International quadrennial project – first Project Independence then SIerra. This time members from Southampton, Winchester and Chichester, as well as regional President Rita from Reigate, joined Gosport and Fareham club for the event. Any money surplus will be sent to Mamelodi House, for AIDS orphans in South Africa. There were 3 speeches after the ‘lean’ lunch of bread and cheese with fruit and coffee. Christine Wilkes spoke first about the club’s project to put bookmarks into secondary schools, showing on one side the characteristics of a loving relationship and on the other the indicators of abuse. The sides are labelled: Loves me…, Loves me not. Tracy Gardiner then talked about the Bee Plus project that had been developed by the SI

THE WINNER of the beautifully crafted hand-made patchwork quilt raffled by SI Gosport and Fareham at Conference was Iola Evans from Dolgellau. 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.    

  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

President Margaret Smith is pictured with our speaker Duncan Colin-Jones and club member Christine White who had suggested he be invited to address the club.  During his clinical career Duncan had worked locally at QA hospital. 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