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

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

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

RIPE, fruity and quaffable were words on the lips of members (above), their families and friends, who went to a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Four wines from grapes produced in Wickham were sampled along with a tasty selection of canapés. Three of the wines were white, one of them sparkling, and the fourth was rose. The event was held at Webbsland, an eight-acre vineyard where the grapes grown and used in the making of the wine are of Wurzer, Reichensteiner, Bacchus, Pinot Noir and Dornfelder. Organised by club member Kathleen Durning, (fourth from right, almost hidden from view in the picture above) proceeds from the evening,  just over £200, will go to Rowan’s Hospice and Gosport and Fareham Women’s Aid refuges.  

SNUGGLED up in bed is former president Alison Jenkins under the beautiful hand-made patchwork quilt to be raffled on the club’s stall at the SIGBI conference in Brighton at the end of October. Around a dozen members have met once or twice a month for the past two years to create the masterpiece – in mostly blue and yellow, naturally! As well as the quilt, other prizes in the raffle will be a cushion cover, a table runner and a carrier bag, all in patchwork, pictured below with Alison and Rosemary Hampton. Led by Alison, who did most of the work, the nifty needlewomen involved were Pam Grosvenor, Maureen Lowry, Celia Veal, Rosemary Hampton, Christine Wilkes, Pat Caulton and Ann Pibworth plus four or five other occasional helpers. Proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Society.

EATING and drinking in convivial surroundings, and chatting to friends old and new – that was the order of the day at the club’s annual barbecue. Friends and family joined members who enjoyed the sunshine while tucking into tasty roast pork, chicken and sausages, in the lovely Bishop’s Waltham garden of former president Mrs Pam Simcock. President Margaret Smith was delighted to welcome five members from Worcester and Malvern club. Also among those in attendance were Soroptimists from local clubs at Southampton, Chichester and Winchester including their president Lorraine Marriott. Mrs Smith thanked everyone for supporting the event and helping to raise funds for local charities. Slightly more than a hundred people enjoyed the afternoon while helping to boost the coffers of the Alzheimer’s Society and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The event raised more than £1,400 including £367 from a raffle and £207 from a

MEMBERS were taken on a tour of the globe – two and a half times – by guest speaker Ishbel Veitch, a Soroptimist with the Guildford club. She painted a picture of a fascinating and fun life that had begun in Dunedin, New Zealand, 81 years ago. After qualifying as a radiographer the young Ishbel, of Scottish and English stock, came to “the old country” with a friend, bought a bicycle, and cycled around Britain, Holland and France. She’d been told never to drink the water in France so she took the advice to heart and quenched her thirst with wine. She said she’d “found God walking in the beautiful Welsh hills” and became a Roman Catholic. She returned to New Zealand – in the days when the journey took more than five weeks by boat – via the picturesque Panama Canal. But she was

Club member Tracy Gardiner visited in Montreal for the 19th international convention of Soroptimist International.  This event is held every four years, by each Federation in turn – you may remember that it was in Sydney in 2003 and Glasgow in 2007.  There was a packed programme, with four days of plenary speakers, workshops and exhibitions being hosted in Montreal at the Palais de Congres.  Soroptimists all over the world do very similar programme work, and all the delegates were asked to bring any spare toileteries from their hotels to donate to a local refuge! Tracy reports greetings from our Friendship Link club in Esbjerg, Denmark, having met up with Lizbeth Hass at the Friendship evening after the opening ceremony on Sunday night (10 July).  Lizbeth said her club had just received the summer letter from Gillian Harris, telling them about all the activities we have been