Our Friendship Night this year was a culinary representation of all of the Club’s national and international links. The friendship candles were ignited with due ceremony. We commenced with Lisburn in Northern Ireland represented by Beef in – yes you guessed it – Guiness! Topeka in the USA gave us Waldorf salad, sweet potato and New York cheesecake. Caserta in Italy provided the lasagne. Dessert took the form of a Gdansk inspired apple pie and Horsens (Denmark) rounded off the feast with a Danish Ring. Needless to say we all enjoyed the news provided by each club – including our district club of Windermere. It was so interesting to receive greetings and news from around the world, making us realize that wherever we are our aims are still the same – bound together by our great organisation.

One of the lesser known facts regarding our current President, Sandra Brookfield is that she joined the Territorial Army in 1985, using her nursing experience to advantage within the organization. President Sandra’ said “Knowing people who have been in combat brought  home to me the plight of service men and women coming home from combat suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and  so that’s why I chose Combat Stress as one of the charities for my year in office.” Two representatives of Combat Stress – Peter Hoare (Regional Welfare Officer) and Michele O’Brien (Community Psychiatric Nurse) seen here with President Sandra, recently spoke to our club, leaving us with the realization that we are supporting a very worthwhile cause and, as Peter said “We simply couldn’t do what we do without the generosity of the great British public and especially clubs such as yours.”