Our Club Socials whether its face to face or on Zoom
We try to have a fun event, or social every month. In our club, these are mostly on Zoom (the only option during Covid lockdowns) - this in mainly due to the physical distances between us all. Occasionally we manage a face to face outing where we meet up somewhere interesting to have some fun……
Paul was invited along to talk to us at our June Social by Angela.
Angela knows Paul as he lives in the same town as she does.
We all enjoyed the evening and asked questions at the end.
17th June 2025 Paul Atkins Guide Dogs talk
Tilly and Paul emBARK on £6K funding mission for Guide Dogs
Pauls Story
"Almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss that has a significant impact on their daily lives. Of those, around 180,000 rarely leave their homes alone and lead lonely, isolated lives. Guide Dogs work for a world where people with sight loss are never left out of life, for a world where being blind or partially sighted is not what defines you. A world with enough support to make the challenges of sight loss no barrier to fulfilling hopes and dreams." Guide Dogs
My personal journey with Guide Dogs started whilst attending a rehabilitation centre for blind people in Devon and that was 30 years ago. Guide Dogs gave a presentation about how a Guide Dog could assist me and help me gain back my independence, whilst developing my life skills.
After training
After training and qualifying with my first guide dog Dale, I was ready to start my next chapter in life and our first adventure together began with a train journey from Torquay in Devon to the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford. There I learned more life skills and gained qualifications. This both boosted my confidence and eventually lead to full time employment.
It's been almost 30 years since my first Guide Dog Dale, who was followed by Roza, Taggart, Nessie and Tilly. I've had 5 amazing working partnerships, achieving so much more than I ever thought possible. Guide Dogs have truly changed my life.
Illness
Over the years sadly three of my dogs were diagnosed with cancer. A difficult time for a pet owner, but more difficult when it’s your own Assistance dog and friend. The bills can soon mount up, thankfully Guide Dogs paid for all of the vets’ bills. Tilly my current dog was diagnosed just before Christmas 2024. Guide Dogs continue to pay all the bills even when a dog is retired.
Each time I have needed help; the charity has been wonderful and supportive through the difficult times. Always there for Roza and Nessie and ongoing for Tilly. Taggart also needed extra support. After qualifying as a Guide Dog training is ongoing at home for the next 6 – 12 months. During this time, I discovered Taggart was known by staff at the charity as a “Pipe and Slippers dog” I soon found out why!
Appreciation
I want to show my gratitude and raise awareness by raising funds to say “thank you” to this wonderful organisation that helped me when my confidence was at its lowest. One very important statistic that is worth mentioning is it costs approximately £50,000 per dog for its working life and currently there are about 5,000 dogs working to enhance the lives of blind people. With that figure in mind, the amount I would love to achieve is £6,000 because that was the amount of Tilly's vet bills for December of last year.
As a Volunteer speaker with Guide Dogs, I am happy to give talks on “My Journey through sight loss and Guide Dogs” and raise funds from various events throughout the year. Guide Dogs rely on the help of the public for donations, gifts and legacies, they receive no National funding. That is why my JustGiving page is so important to me. Giving something back is special, the charity and dogs give so much to people like me, allowing us to fulfil our hopes and dreams.
20th May 2025 Scattergories
For our Social this month Mark hosted Scattergories
A very well done to Mark for entertaining us!
21st January 2025 Talk by Brave Futures Charity
At our first Zoom Social of the year, Hannah from Brave Futures came along to talk to us about the work they are doing.
Brave Futures is a specialist support service for children and young people upto the age of 18 years who have experienced sexual abuse. They work throughout Suffolk and Norfolk. Providing a safe place for children and young people to make sense of the confusion they feel. They give children and young people the skills and tools they need to re-build their futures, manage the trauma they have experienced and help them move from victim to survivor.
Brave Futures contacted us in November last year to see if they could come along and have a chat with us. We accepted their offer and afterwards we decided to make a donation of £100 to help with their running costs.
7th December 2024 Club Christmas Meal
16th July 2024 Scattergories
Hosted by Mark
We had to guess things that were in the randomly generated categories, beginning with the randomly generated letters
Zoom Pig Racing Tuesday 28th may 2024
Angela hosted Zoom Pig Racing for our social this month
Sandie was the overall winner and was presented with a cute crochet pig!
16th April 2024 Social meeting with a talk by District CE officer for Lions Brain Tumour Research Lynne Roberts
District CE officer for Lions Brain Tumour Research Lynne Roberts gave us a very imformative talk and explained how Lions are raising money to help with this very worthwhile cause.
We told her we had already purchased a balloon for each member in the MD105 Virtual Balloon race starting during MD Convention at Western-Super-Mare on 5th May
Robyn and Rick attended from Arras, France
also attending as a guest was Brian Stanbridge from Eastwood Lions
9th December 2023 Christmas Meal
Tonight we had our Christmas meal, Sandie provided us with a fish platter to start, roast turkey and a selection of desserts.
Thank you Sandie for providing a wonderful meal.
After dinner we opened our secret santa gifts and cards.
21st November 2023 Sprouty Bingo
As a club spread over quite a distance, all of our meetings and most of our socials are on Zoom. This months social was sprouty bingo!
The prize for those lucky winners was a Crochet Brussel Sprout with a chocolate in the centre fantastically made by Moira
August 2023 Beetle Drive
Our most recent social in August 2023 was a Beetle Drive on Zoom. Each player had a dice and each number is allocated to a body part. Once a beetle is complete that round is finished and players add up their total. After 12 rounds our winner was decided. Well done to Tony, pictured here with his prize made by our president Moira, we think it's fabulous!
Christmas meal 17th December 2022
A fun Christmas meal cooked by Sandie, complete with pass the parcel, singing and Secret Santa!
In attendance was Sandie, Tony, Louisa, Mark, Moria, Angela, Alan, Robyn and Rick
Hyde Hall 29th November 2022
This evening we went to RHS Hyde Hall for their light trail. Thankfully although a little crisp, we had dry weather to enjoy walking round the beautiful gardens
Audley End House, Saffron Waldon 24th July 2022
July's social was a trip to Audley End House, it was a victorian themed weekend. We went and viewed the house, stable block and watched the fire eating display. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day out!
Making and parading our Lanterns 11th December 2021
Our lanterns that we started at our Zoom social December 2021, all complete and a mini parade in the house (too wet in the garden tonight!) What an amazing display well done everyone!
Christmas meal 11th December 2021
A fun Christmas meal cooked by Sandie, complete with pass the parcel, singing and Secret Santa! on 11th December 2021
October 2021 Zoom Pig Race!
In October 2021 we held our very own zoom pig race! Superbly organised by Angela, we choose our pig from the start list, some may have been better behaved than others, not all raced in the right direction and many gave up before the finish line! But what a fun night, full of laughter we had!
Jam factory and garden centre
Wilkin & Son Tiptree Jam Factory and Perrywoods garden centre Wednesday 6th November 2019
Several members live in the vicinity of the great Wilkins Jam factory – which also has a lovely tea room and museum. We decided to have a club social meeting there and exploring the interesting museum on site… then we headed to Perrywoods Garden Centre just down the road for a magnificent lunch. We were there when the Christmas displays were up as well – so it got quite expensive for some of us!
Ickworth House 17th April 2019
Our 1st group social meeting
Club members met for a social outing at Ickworth House in Suffolk. A great time was had by all exploring the great house and grounds with extensive gardens and woodland trails of this National Trust property.