Brendoncare Oct 10th

Today we were in Winchester for Brendoncare’s annual event which was held in the Middle Brook Centre.

Brendoncare is a registered charity which cares for older people through care centres and friendship and well-being clubs.

There are several care centres across the South of England, and these provide care for the elderly who may be physically or mentally frail. Care is provided under one roof enabling residents to stay in one place regardless of changing circumstances.

There are also around 70 volunteer led social clubs, including 4 in the Havant area, at Havant, Hayling Island, Leigh Park and Waterlooville. They meet on a regular basis and all are welcome. Further details can be found at http://www.brendoncare.org.uk

We arrived for registration about 10.15 with the programme for the day beginning at 10.30. After the introductions by the Chief Executive, Ron Staker, and the first of several poems written bystaff, residents and carers and narrated at different times throughout the programme, the first speakers were Patricia McParland and Michele Board from the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute.

Lunch was followed by a welcome speech by the Chairman, Jeremy Delmar-Morgan, and we then had a very interesting talk by 23-year old Fraser Doherty, the founder of SuperJam, initially created after learning his grandmother’s secret jam recipe at the age of 13.

Then followed a vote-of-thanks by Trustee, Joe MacHale, a talk by Ron Staker and a “Bake Off” between two of Brendoncare’s chefs.

Due to another engagement we had to leave at this point, so we were unable to be there for various award presentations which included Kitchen of the Year, Long Service, Brendoncare and Outstanding Achievement awards.