Rotary Club of Gloucester

AT PRESENT between 6,000 - 7,500 people in Gloucestershire are suffering from dementia - about half of these will be victims of Alzheimer's disease.

This stark statistic was given to club members by Ann Carter, support and development co-ordinator of the Alzheimer's Society when she spoke at the club in January.

She said the dementia was no respecter of persons although it tended to strike older people more frequently with one in five falling victim over the age of 80.

In a detailed talk she told how attitudes to it had changed over the 25 years the society has been in existence. In 1979 few GPs would have recognised the condition and patients were sent away since there was little medical science could do for them.

Since then with the help of the Alzheimer Society there had been considerable changes. There were now 250 support groups in the UK, there was a 24 hour helpline five days a week, there were booklets and vedeos to explain dementia and millions of £s had been ploughed into research.

Ann said there were now four drugs which could stablise people for a couple of years and more drugs were being trialled. She was hopeful that within 10 years drugs would have been developed to hold it at bay.

Talking of the Gloucester branch, Ann said it had been set up as a result of a Rotary initiative started by members of Gloucester Severn. She said the branch's objective was to provide a quarterly newsletter, monthly support groups, a weekly luncheon club, coffee mornings and provide respite for carers.

Far from being downbeat by the nature of her work or subject Ann was extremely positive about the future and said her chosen profession was both exciting and rewarding.

In his vote of thanks Dave Corbett who had seen his father die of Alzheimer's disease about

Up for auction - the chance of a day with the editor

THE recent Hutton inquiry showed that although it might be reporters who overstep the mark its their bosses who 'carry the can' And on a newspaper the buck stops with the editor.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be the editor of a newspaper - the stories, the pressures, the decisions, the deadlines....and so on.

Well thanks to Ian Mean of The Citizen you can have the opportunity of shadowing him for a day...which will include lunch.

In a relatively short time as editor Ian has made a huge impact on the paper - its appearance, content and people's perception of its role in the city. In his first year the paper was runner up in the competition for the best evening newspaper in the country - quite an achievement.

Now you can find out what makes Ian tick. Find out what life is like to edit a busy provincial paper. Just come and bid.
This is one of the pledges for the club's auction of gifts and promises to be held on Friday, October 15.

President designate Angela has asked that this event be one of the major fund raising events during her presidential year and Colin Eynon and his committee are working hard to ensure its both a really pleasurable and successful evening.

It will start with a three course meal with coffee and mints followed by the auction which will, once again, by in the capable hands of Mr Auctioneer himself, Bob Short.

You can help in a number of ways:
(1) Put the date in your diary NOW - remember, October 15, 2004.
(2) Arrange for two/three gifts and/or promises. This is a great opportunity to approach companies and organisations to support the work of Rotary but let John Smith know to avoid duplicity of effort.
(3) Complete the entry form and return to John Smith by the end of July at the latest so that the catalogue can be completed and distributed in good time for the event.
(4) Sponsorship and advertising in the catalogue is required. Please let Colin Rogers or Julian Farr known of your requirements.
(5) Make the event widely known. It is hoped that 150-200 Rotarians and guests will attend.
(6) Organise a table of friends, business colleagues etc (tables of eight or ten) and book the table with Tony Tetley.

The cost of the tickets will be around £17.50p - excellent value. It will be a really successful evening if every member of the club gives it their full support. Let us all pull together to ensure that the first fun raising event of the year of our first lady president is a roaring success.

Education - a service or business

FEW speakers have sparked the sort of debate that followed Alan Biggs' talk to the club on the Kip McGrath Education Centres.

Alan explained that Kip was an Australian teacher who responded to the demand for additional tutoring in English and numeracy by designing his own curriculum and computer programme.

Such were the concerns of Australian parents about their children's shortcomings that within a short time he had created an enormous demand.

Kip quickly appreciated he had tapped into a lucrative source of income and quit full time education to start his own business. The rest is a matter of history. Today there are 400 franchised tuition centres around the world catering for children from six to 16.

Alan, also an Australian and a former primary school head teacher, who ran a centre in his home country, came to England to open franchises over here.

His objective is to have 200 centres in the UK during his stay of about five years - one of these now in operation and working extremely successfully is that in Westgate Street being run by his wife Lucy. Here students are assessed in reading or maths and if, suitable, are tutored at £20 a time.

In a lively question session following his talk, Alan found himself having to defend the centres' existence and philosophy from some of our members - particularly Tony Tetley, the former head of Gloucester's Beaufort School.

A Policeman's lot

FEW people could have experienced the incident-packed life of Sir Ross Sims who fascinated members with a avalanche of anecdotes in a talk at the club's International Charity dinner at St Andrew's Centre at Churchdown.

As the title of his talk suggests Sir Ross is a former policeman whose 'career beat' encompassed the beautiful North Yorkshire moors and the hallowed corridors of Buckingham Palace.

In a talk packed with pathos and humour he traced his career from its beginnings at Richmond and Scorton until he was forced to retire following a London bank raid incident in which, as a detective inspector in the Metropolitan Flying Squad, he was shot in a bank raid incident in which his sergeant was also shot and a PC was blinded.

In between his career's idyllic start and its horrific ending Sir Ross met a host of colourful characters - some pleasant and some not - which ranged from killers to poachers, from shoplifters to vagrants, from eccentrics to prostitutes.

It was the sort of stuff of which autobiographies are made ....and in one sense Sir Ross has already started his in that some of the incidents from his early life 'up north' were the basis of storylines in the popular ITV series 'Heartbeat.'

But Sir Ross is not only a raconteur or an ex-cop cashing in on his policeman's lot. Far from it.

As a London police officer he established the first police museum in the country in memory of the 'Bow Street Runners' the precursors of the present police force. It was to be a turning point in Sir Ross's life although he didn't realise it at the time.

Following the tragic bank raid which ended his career he spent two and a half years at the famous spinal injuries hospital at Stoke Mandeville. It was here that he learned to walk again and - with the help of Sir Jimmy Saville - create a life beyond the police force.

This he has done magnificently. Building on his interest in the history of policing he had established police museums not only in this country at Nottingham and Winchcombe (where he now lives) but also in Holland, Moscow, the Czech Republic, Finland and Miami.

Through these he has raised no less than £2.75million for charity..........a truly remarkable story of human initiative and courage overcoming adversity and depression.

Sir Ross's story rounded off a delightful evening enjoyed by around 100 people , Particular thanks goes to Julian Farr who helped organise (and sponsor the event along with Nationwide Recruitment) and John Sargeant, the international committee chairman who not only headed up all the organisation but also proved a suave and polished MC on the night.

Thanks go to President Clive who took the photos on this page. These what a great evening of fellowship had been enjoyed by all concerned.

Top givers in district

District governor Mike Gelder paid a surprise visit to the club recently to present club president Clive Kingscote with a banner to mark the fact that we were the top contributing club in district to Rotary International last year.

For most of us it was an unexpected and a delightful surprise. Mike is always a welcome guest.

We hope that by the time Mike reads this his wife will be well on the road to recovery and that both of them will be looking forward to his district conference in Plymouth.

Countdown to 000

THE countdown has started to the biggest and most ambitious money-raising project with which the club has ever been involved.

The target is to raise 000 for the Institute of Cancer Research with the help of more than 50 schools and thousands of pupils in and around Gloucester.

The launch date and venue have been decided - Friday, March 19 at Kingsholm at an Under 21 international between England and Wales.

And on Monday, March 22, 37 primary schools will be involved in balloon races over two weeks ending on April 1.

The 12 secondary schools plus King's School and the Milestones Special School will be staging their money raising events in the two weeks from April 19th following the Easter break.

The huge amount of spade work for this city-wide fundraiser had been done by a small number of club members headed by Peter Nesbitt and Tony Tetley.

The committee has been supported in its efforts by generous sponsorship from the Chelsea Building Society which will mean that every onated will go to cancer research.

So, to date the schools have been 'signed up' the parents have been informed, the costs have been met and the publicity bandwagon has started to roll.

The wider involvement of club members will come with the start of the balloon races when teams will visit primary schools to help with balloon races. We don't yet know whether Rotary help will be needed by any participating secondary schools.

However support from all Rotarians will be needed for the gala weekend at Barnwood Park High School on Friday, June 25 and Saturday, June 26.

The school will have a huge marquee erected for prize giving which will then become available to the club for events on both evenings.

On the Friday the proposed speakers for the evening are the colourful and controversial Neil and Christine Hamilton.

On the Saturday when a cheque for the proceeds of the Cancer Campaign will be officially handed over the proposed guests will be media personality Nick Owen and at least one other well known celebrity.

The proceeds from both evenings will go towards the centenary project to build and equip a parents room in the new children's wing of the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in conjunction with the two other city Rotary clubs.

If this gala weekend is to be a success it will need total involvement....and not merely buying tickets. On both evenings help will be needed for a host of jobs ranging from car parking to stewarding while on the Saturday morning a heavy gang will be required to convert a 700 seat auditorium into a 400 seat theatre for a dinner event.

Please keep the dates free and consider whether there is any way in which you can help. Incidentally help will also be need for floral arranging so if there are some creating women (or men) available Peter would love to hear from you.

Hitting the headlines

Rotary's campaign got front page treatment in The Citizen - plus two additional pages inside which carried case studies on Peter Nesbitt, David Lamper and Veronica Rock. The editor has promised comprehensive coverage and John Lovell will be keeping him (and his photographers) fully informed of when and where things will be happening. Once again we aree very grateful to Ian Mean for his support .

Didn't we all do well

Didn't we all do well

In a final push to eradicate the scourge of polio by Rotary's centenary year in 2005, Rotary International set a target of 80 million dollars worldwide. To date the actual sum collected has exceeded 111.5 million dollars.

On a local level our own Rotary District set a target of ,000. However, thanks to the hard work, endeavour and generosity of Rotarians, the actual sum so far raised is in excess of ,000.

In a letter to cubs Neal Farr, district chairman of the Polio Eradication Committee said it was a great effort by all concerned and added that when the goal of eradication has been achieved we should all be very proud of the role Rotary has played in achieving that commendable goal.

There is no organisation that takes the motto 'Servive Above Self' more seriously than Rotary International and nowhere is this more evident that in its commitment to a polio free world.

New man for the hot seat

New man for the hot seat

Old film footage and cruise brochures were two of the audio-visual aids employed by Ron Ring who gave a somewhat belated but intriguing job talk to the club recently.

In fact it was such a long time ago that Ron had joined the club that when he gave his job talk he had not one but two members to introduce him since the details of who presented him originally to the club seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

Nevertheless Ron overcame the problem of having two minders and gave us a fascinating overview of his career which took him from a purser's office on board world cruise ships to the high-tech world of accountancy today......and into the vital role of club treasurer.

For many years Ron headed up the Gloucester operation of Bang Olufsen, the Danish company which produces high quality home entertainment products which today includes TVs video recorders, music systems and more recently mobile telephones.

More recently Ron was 'head hunted' by Peter Nesbitt (when the B&O operation in Gloucester closed down) to help his daughter Linda who was building her own empire - then in pre-school nurseries. Now he has moved on again...............

However from a club perspective we are extremely grateful that Ron has agreed to step succeed Nigel ('It's not in the budget so the answer's no) Halls who has kept us on the financial straight and narrow for the past five years.

We are very grateful to Nigel whose acerbic wit, command of statistics and his no nonsense approach to Club Council meetings has been refreshing. So it's sincere thanks to Nigel and a warm welcome to Ron.