Annual General Meeting and Meal

Sunday 7 March 2010

Our annual lunch and the Annual General Meeting are being held on this date. I hope that you and your family will be able to come to both events. This year, we are very pleased that Jackie Bland, ASBAH Chief Executive, will be attending the lunch and she will also give a short talk at the AGM.

For lunch, we are meeting at the Blue Ball public house. This is the same venue as the last few years. We have always had good meals there and it is a good sociable occasion. The restaurant area is wheelchair accessible. There is a disabled loo at both the pub and at the AGM venue.

The AGM will be held after the meal. The AGM is your opportunity to hear what the committee is doing on your behalf and also to contribute ideas for future activities.

Access We would like everyone to feel that they can attend Surrey ASBAH events that interest them. If you need help with transport or you need a companion with you to enable you to join in, please contact a committee member. We will do our best to help with transport and other needs.

Please join the committee!

Please consider joining us on the Surrey ASBAH committee. We welcome new members and always appreciate new ideas and input.  We meet for two hours or so on a Monday evening every two months and tend to deal with other ad hoc matters through email or on the ‘phone.

Membership Renewal 2010 and Link

With this newsletter, you will find a coloured sheet of paper which is the membership renewal form for 2010. We very much hope you will renew your membership for next year. For yet another year we have kept the subscription at £10 per family which includes your receipt of both the Link magazine and the Surrey ASBAH newsletter.  Members are always the first to be invited to Surrey ASBAH events and trips.

The form includes a space for an email address. It is very helpful if we can contact you by email – to remind you of events or to pass on news between newsletters. Some members choose to receive our regular newsletter in its colour email version, saving us postage costs. However, if you don’t have an email address, we’re happy to continue to send out information in the post.

 Back to the top

Other forthcoming events

Coffee and Chat

There will be coffee morning on Monday 22 February at 10.30am at Liz’s house in Sutton. Gill Yaz (ASBAH Medical Adviser) will be joining us at 11am to talk about living with hydrocephalus. There will be lots of opportunity to ask questions. If you would like to come, please contact Sarah. The last coffee morning was very successful and everyone found it helpful to talk to Gill and to each other. 

Visit to Soft Play Centre

Angela is leading a visit to the new soft play zone at Leatherhead Leisure Centre on Saturday 24 April meeting at 2pm. The Kids Soft Play is a large soft play area incorporating a wide range of educational equipment for children aged eight years and under. The visit offers parents an opportunity to chat to each other while their children play. This is a parent supervised activity so parents must be in attendance at all times and they remain responsible for their children. The cost is £3.45 per child and £1.10 per adult. The centre is located at Guildford Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 9BL. Please let Angela know if you plan to come along.

Lower Kingswood fete

This is taking place on Bank Holiday Monday 3 May from 1.30pm–4.30pm. Surrey ASBAH is running a stall at the fete and we will share in the profits. Please come and support the fete which is a traditional village fete with a dog show, Punch and Judy, a local band, refreshments and lots of fun and games. The fete is in Buckland Road just off the A217.

Annual Summer afternoon picnic

Sunday 18 July from 3.30pm at the Old Pheasantry. A return visit and the venue for the Prize Draw! Please note the date now!

Canal Boat Trip in September?

We are considering repeating the wheelchair accessible canal boat trip from Guildford this September. If you might be interested in going, do let Sarah know by 26 February, so that we can determine if we are likely to have sufficient numbers. Contact details and a reply slip are at the end of the newsletter.

 Back to the top

Surrey ASBAH went to the panto!  (Oh yes it did!)

My Mum took me (Nick) to the Epsom Playhouse with my friends: Oliver, Grandad, Grandma, Emma and Gemma.  We went to the pantomime called Aladdin.  It was hilarious!

Wishy Washy was my favourite because he was very funny and every time he came up we all said “hi Wishy” as well as moving my thumbs. Aladdin’s Mum came on with very funny dresses and when she slipped over her wig fell off (and she was really a man!).  Aladdin rubbed the lamp and a genie came and did magic.

It was a great afternoon and when we got home we went in the garden, even though it was dark, and had a snowball fight!

Nick (aged 7)

Fundraising

Prize Draw

This year we will be organising another prize draw and we hope to make it even bigger and better than last year! We have already got some fabulous prizes lined up including a DAB digital radio, CD boombox and a bottle of champagne.

The success of our prize draw relies on us selling as many tickets as possible and your committee will be working hard on your behalf. The draw will be made at the summer picnic on 18 July.  Look out for the full list of prizes which will be included in the next newsletter.

Wheelchair Basketball Club

New club looking for players!

A new club has been set up specifically for 10 - 18 year olds in Sunbury. Coaching will take place between 5pm - 7pm on Fridays. Location: Sunbury Manor School, Nursery Road, Sunbury on Thames, Middlesex.

Equipment and coaching will be supplied and it is free of charge to attend.
For more information please contact: Yvette Dixon y.dixon@sunburymanor.surrey.sch.uk or Claire Christie c.christ@sunburymanor.sch.uk or phone 01932 784285 (ext 6180).

Back to the top

Alan Twyford

I am sad to inform you that Alan died on 10 January having been ill with a brain tumour for about a year. Many of you will remember Alan and his wife Margaret as the couple who led Surrey ASBAH for many years and who also played an active role with National ASBAH. Alan was the founder of Your Voice ensuring that disabled members were at the forefront of ASBAH.

Alan worked for Surrey CC and it was through his work that Surrey ASBAH developed its first website in 2004 – one of the council’s web developers was given permission to develop a website and Surrey CC hosted it for us.

After his retirement in 2005, Alan and Margaret moved to Suffolk. They made many friends there and also set up a local support group for those with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

Our sympathy and best wishes go to Margaret. There will be a formal obituary in the April edition of Link.

National and Regional ASBAH

 The “Your Voice” event in Brighton has been re-arranged for 24th and 25th April and is called “Looking good, feeling great”. Further details can be obtained from the co-ordinator Mark Harris 01733 421322 or markh@asbah.org.

The ASBAH website (http://www.asbah.org) is a useful source of information. It provides a full list of publications which can be ordered on-line or by phone. Leaflets are in pdf format and can be printed from the website.

  Back to the top