Local Parish News
MELODICS with songs from the Shows
The Women’s Fellowship spent a very pleasant evening in November being entertained by the six Melodics accompanied by Ann Gaines on the piano. They looked very smart in their red, black and white outfits with matching bags to carry their music.
The Melodics began with a selection of songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Madeleine and Bernard sang “I Remember it Well” from Gigi and Elaine sang “Love Never Dies” from the same show. This was followed by “Amapola” sung by Bernard and an amusing poem recited by Madeleine about getting older. Elaine and the Melodics sang “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from Showboat and Jan and the Melodics sang “As Long as I have Music.” Phil sang Hallelujah and the Melodics ended with a selection of songs from the show Les Miserables.
We thoroughly enjoyed the music and demanded an encore so they sang again the beautiful song of “As Long As I have Music” for us. The group started in 2002 and have raised over £9000 for the Peter Pan Ward, Hillingdon Hospital. Our evening’s entertainment was their 114th concert. Beryl Harrold
The Paul Strickland Scanner Centre
The Mothers’ Union were very pleased to welcome Rina Rawal to our November meeting. Rina is the Fundraising Manager for the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre which is a registered Charity independent of the NHS and based at Mount Vernon Hospital. Dr. Strickland, a world renowned cancer specialist, was an early advocate of medical imaging and the importance of diagnosing serious diseases early in order to save lives.
Rina told us about the aims, research, fundraising and equipment at the centre which continually evaluates equipment and techniques to ensure patients get the most comprehensive scanning facilities available to enable specialists to gain a clear picture of cancer and other diseases and monitor the effectiveness of treatment.
The latest CT scanner is a Siemens 64 slice Dual Source Somatom Definiton instrument and the superb detail is ideal for angiography, colonography and cardiac imaging. The MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines use magnetic fields and radio waves to make detailed pictures of the insides of the body and no X-rays are involved. The centre has two PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography) machines which use a tracer injected into the patient. The clarity revealed is ideal for radiotherapy and surgical planning, facilitating treatment and often avoids the need to operate. There is also a Cyclotron Unit producing the FDG on site.
The Friends of The Paul Strickland Centre are volunteers who help raise funds by supermarket collections, coffee mornings, lunches and social outings. Money is also raised from events including Plant and Cake Sales, Annual Golf Day, British l0K London Run, Chenies Walk, Christmas Fayre Quiz Night, Halloween Ball, St. Albans Ladies Circle, Charity Ball and The Dolphin (Pub) Dash in Uxbridge.
The operational side of the centre provides medical imaging to the NHS (not for profit) and to the private healthcare sectors at a competitive rate and undertakes research. The Appeals Department raises capital from donations, legacies and events. New scanners cost from £500,000 - £1,500,000 each and they have to be replaced every 3 – 5 years to enable upgrading to state -of-the art machines using new software. Old and re-conditioned scanners are sold or given to developing countries. One even went to America! The centre scans more than 12,000 patients a year. Consultant radiologists, physicists and radiographers publish papers internationally.
The centre aims to remain at the forefront of scanning technology to benefit patients in the future and in so doing save more lives. Beryl Harrold
Next meeting: 8th February at 2pm: Angela Tyler speaks about “Who Am I Really?”.
We spent a very pleasant relaxing afternoon in December singing carols and listening to Christmas readings. Brenda Ives and Rosemary Causton made up the programme and we enjoyed listening to Betty Washbrook playing the piano for us. We were pleased Revd Martin Davies was able to join us and stay afterwards for our festive Tea Party.
We had collected Christmas food and toiletries which we packed into a large box to be taken to the New Hope Trust, Watford.
We were very sorry that Pat Boobyer was unable to be with us due to health problems. Our next meeting will be on 8th February, 2pm. Our speaker will be Angela Tyler and her subject is “Who Am I Really?” Beryl Harrold.
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Quiz and Supper Evening The St Mary’s Social and Fundraising Committee held a Quiz and Supper night in January. Despite a last minute change of venue the event was as popular as ever and raised £728.70 for Church funds. Thank you to everyone who supported this event. |
The next meeting will take place on Monday, 27th February at the Park Lane Village Centre commencing at 8pm. The guest speaker will be Pam Reed and her subject will be ‘The Manor of Denham’. All are welcome, members free and visitors just £1.50. Tea and coffee etc. to follow as usual. Do come along and hear news of some Society outings.
152 The number of boxes taken from Harefield
74 boxes from St Mary’s Church
78 boxes from Harefield Infant School
13 more boxes in total than 2010
2,894 The total number of boxes sorted, packed and sent to Mozambique in time for Christmas.
Well done everyone!
The Parish Office
c/o The Vicarage
28 Countess Close
Harefield
UB9 6DL