A wonderful morning was spent at Bradley Hall Gardens with members from SI Sunderland, SI Tynedale, SI Newcastle, SI Middlesbrough and SI Tynemouth, Whitley Bay & District, all clubs from the East of the SINE (Soroptimist International Northern England) region who got together to support SI Cockermouth in raising awareness and funds for Brain Tumour Research on Thursday 2 August. Members, as ever,  were very generous with a huge £203 raised through donations for BrainTumour Research in memory of two lovely members from SI Cockermouth, who recently lost their lives to this disease.They were the founding President Wendy Dempster and treasurer and past club President Diana Clark; both had more than 30 years service each. A message from Jane Inman, IPP of Northern region At our Friendship Coffee morning and Open Garden yesterday we had  a super turnout with more than 40 members and friends enjoying chat

MANZINI – trustees of the Manzini Youth Project provided tuition, materials and guidance for the girls to cut and prepare the several layers needed to stitch together to make re-usable sanitary protection for the students in Manzini, ensuring they can attend school during menstruation. Harbour – the aim for our working day was to make cotton bags for the mothers and children of HARBOUR, a local refuge. They will later be filled with toiletries and treats.      

A huge thank you to all of our guests: the girls from Whitley Bay High School, family, friends, our club members and guest Tricia, from Harbour. So, the room got booked, the quizzes created & printed, food ordered, raffle prizes collected, tickets printed and sold, displays made, wine and water collected, room organised, hamper created, balloons inflated, snacks eaten (so unhealthy girls!), raffle tickets sold, and so the quiz began with Charlotte excelling as quiz person………….each quiz round totalled, money totted up to reveal an awesome £360 raised for Harbour. So here are the final results – so close. 1st    JJ & the WKDS – 102 2nd   Last Again – 98 3rd   StevB – 90 4th   Spanish Battery – 89 5th   6 – 86 6th = Spice Girls,  The Passion Fruits – 85 8th   Wait for it – 82 9th   NCPG – 71  

Our ‘FAIRLY PRICED SHOP’ raised £144 and more to come as we intend to sell the remaining items on ebay. 50% to ‘Stop the Traffik’ and 50% to club funds. .                https://www.stopthetraffik.org/campaign/fashion/ http://www.ntdf.co.uk/  

Thirteen girls from the newly formed WBHS Soroptimists group (Whitley Bay High School) attended an after school meeting with Dame Vera Baird QC, MBE. Dame Vera told them how she had come from a poor family and was the first to go to university and how she thought about a few different things like medicine before deciding on law, what it was like to be a junior barrister then a senior QC, then an MP and Solicitor General. They were fascinated by her careers and asked some searching questions including questions around any sex discrimination she had faced. She also gave them some insight into very high profile cases she had fought at the Old Bailey representing women who had murdered their husbands after being abused for years We were there about 90 minutes (it was supposed to be 60 but they asked so many questions) She

Celebrating 70 years of 63 at the House of Lords On 2nd May 2018, 112 guests enjoyed lunch at the House of Lords, generously sponsored by the Baroness May Blood of Blackwatertown MBE, to acknowledge 70 years of Number 63 and to celebrate the achievements of the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) and The Integration Education Fund Northern Ireland, (IEF). The guests enjoyed a prosecco reception, regrettably indoors rather than on the stunning terrace due to rain, rain and more rain! http://www.number63.co.uk/

  This year marks the centenary since some women were granted the right to vote in 1918. Fawcett, a campaigner since her 20s, was 81 when from the public gallery of the House of Commons she finally saw women given the right to vote on the same terms as men in 1928. She died one year later. The Fawcett statue, created by Turner prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing, depicts the suffragist leader as a 50-year-old, the age at which she became president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. She holds a banner that reads: “Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere”, an extract from a speech Fawcett made after the death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who was killed after she fell under King George V’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby.  

  £116 raised – £58 to MIND – Streetwise, Tyneside & Northumberland.  Streetwise offer free and confidential advice, counselling, sexual health and support services for young people aged 13-25 in our region. https://www.streetwisenorth.org.uk/  

What a great day and a huge thanks to President Judy, Shirley and Peter and all those members and friends who donated top-class goods to sell last May bank holiday. A whopping £190 was raised for Shirley’s ‘bit of a do’ as she follows on from current Regional President Linda as President of Northern England in October at SIGBI’s Annual Conference in Liverpool. .