This event follows on from the successful public meeting held in November 2011 at the church, where 350 people attended to discuss the possible future of the hospital.

At the February meeting, a presentation on the work and progress by The League of Friends, including the exploration of developing a Social Enterprise Model of ownership for the hospital. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for the community to put forward their views about the future of the hospital.

An online petition has also been sent up by The League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital providing another way for the community to show their support.

[Update 06/02/2012] You can now download a summary of what was discussed on the evening including thoughts from Dr Graham Lewis MBE, advisor Zac Arif and MP Vince Cable and news that the online petition has now received over 12,000 signatures.

Pamela Bryant MBE, Chairman of The League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital presenting at the meeting with the panel (left to right):
Zac Arif, Advisor to the League, Julian Naylor, Trustee and Company Secretary of the League, Baroness Hilton, Chairman of Teddington Society and General Practitioner Dr Graham Lewis MBE and Dr Kate Moore

Dr Graham Lewis MBE giving his presentation

As part of the hospice’s volunteers campaign, the Business Secretary aimed to show visitors to the shop that even in these hard times of austerity, giving your time can be just as rewarding and invaluable for local charities.

Vince, Patron of Shooting Star CHASE said of his day at the shop: “It is a very successful, well organised and well laid out shop. I have helped on the till, steamed donated clothes and helped with some cleaning. The staff have made me feel so welcome, they have a great spirit… I would encourage anyone to come and volunteer for Shooting Star CHASE. Volunteers are vital and make a big difference to the charity.”

Val Hall, Shooting Star CHASE Senior Retail Co-ordinator added: “It was fantastic to have the Business Secretary volunteer with us. He really proves that donating your time is vital to charities. Shooting Star CHASE’s volunteers are so important in keeping our shops going, and although we have many dedicated volunteers, we still need more.

“We hope that Dr Cable’s example will spur local residents to follow suit and donate their time to make a real difference to over 500 local families that rely on our support.”

For those able to help out, Shooting Star CHASE are currently looking for new volunteers for their shops in Teddington, Twickenham, Hampton Hill, Shepperton, Whitton and Ashford. For more information on volunteering, click here.

One possible future for the hospital involves a Social Enterprise ownership model where the development of services would be decided locally via partnerships with the community and the health and social care services – helping to secure its future as a local GP and community hospital. You can find out about how the investigation into this and other plans are progressing at several up-and-coming dates.

There are two January ‘Drop-In’ dates – informal meetings at Teddington Baptist Church Hall on Monday 16th January. This will be split into two sessions – parents with young families 11am-2pm to discuss services for children at the hospital (any suggestions will be welcome). Then 7:30-9pm for any member of the community to talk about any additional services, clinics etc. If you are short on time you can drop in for a brief spell as these will be informal in nature.

Following on from these sessions a public meeting will be held on February 2nd at the same venue 7-9pm where a presentation on work and progress so far will be made. Opportunities for feedback will also be available – TMH is the community’s hospital and the League of Friends want your involvement.

Although strong assurances have been recently made by NHS bosses that its future more secure than it has ever been (particularly with governments plans to move more patients to hospitals in their communities), the main concern still remains that the proposed creation of a Foundation Trust which may be at risk of a future merger. If you cannot attend any of the meetings you can show your support by adding your name to the online petition.

Recently a group of artists lent their work to the hospital for an exhibition so that patients and staff could enjoy them on site. Richmond Arts Service transported 30 paintings, graphic designs and old photographs (most of local scenes) to the hospital for this special exhibition.

Studies have shown that showing works of art in hospitals can reduce anxiety, stress and depression for patients, as well as staff and visitors! The hospital has run similar schemes involving voluntary visitors to chat to patients and well-behaved bed-side pet visits.

The League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital have a proud record of voluntary service to the hospital and have raised several million pounds since its inception to help improve facilities and equipment.

She will be taking part in her first ever Marathon this year as one of the charities ‘gold band’ runners and a personal fund-raising target of £2,150.

Despite being a single mother, Natalie is finding time to train to move up from previously completed 5km charity runs to the marathon distance – no mean feat!

Natalie and a friend will also be hosting a fundraising quiz night (venue TBC) on the 3rd of March with prizes from local businesses – please get in touch (email npbartlett@yahoo.co.uk) if you might be able to help by kindly donating any prizes.

As if this isn’t enough, she has also organised the creation of a saucy fun charity calendar with friends and family for the same cause.

Local businesses have rallied round to help with the production – with photo-shoots, design and printing all given free of charge from generous business owners.

The ‘Lil Miss’ risqué calender was shot locally in premises including the Red Lion pub and AG Millers Butchers and features shots of Natalie & friends in themed costumes including mechanic, butcher, builder, firefighter, chef and plumber!

Each calendar is £10 and the target is to raise £900 – they are available from the red lion pub, Stanley Road, Teddington or via Natalie by email.

Based by the Wharf Restaurant the Lifeboat Station has always been run by local volunteers and the station is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 2011 saw an average of one ‘shout’ a week proving an invaluable service on their stretch of the river from Hampton Court to Richmond. The first shout of 2012 was at 3am on Tuesday 3rd January to assist a search for a missing man in the area, who was later found safe and sound.

The RNLI operates over 230 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and since it was founded in 1824 its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 137,000 lives.

Cathy with some fellow volunteers

The station would like to thank all it’s volunteers over the years and also the local community for all it’s continued support. If you want to help celebrate this milestone and help raise funds for the RNLI, an up-and-coming event at the Landmark Arts Centre will let you do just that!

West End performer and RNLI volunteer crew member Cathy Cogle will be presenting and performing ‘An Evening at The Musicals’ for one night only to raise funds.

Cathy Cogle lives in Teddington and has performed in West End shows such as Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The Woman in White. She recently took part in the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 and also appeared at this year’s Royal Variety Performance and the Classical Brit Awards.

Cathy: ‘It can be tough when the pager goes off at 3am but the adrenalin soon kicks in and we are out on the river within a matter of minutes. We get called out for all sorts of emergencies; suicide attempts, searching for missing people, rescuing swimmers and boats in trouble… The RNLI does not get any funding from the UK government and so I thought I would do my bit, combine my two passions and help a very worthy cause.’

‘An Evening at The Musicals’ is a spectacular concert of songs from the world’s greatest musicals performed by some of the finest West End performers. They will perform for one night only on Sunday 12th February 8pm. Tickets £15 /£20. Box office 0208 977 7558 or online at landmarkartscentre.org.

Our shops have really done us proud this year with their Christmas window displays and helped keep locals shopping locally.

Many businesses will be closed from just after midday on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and not re-open until the New Year so check at your favourite shops to see when they open again!

A huge double-rainbow stopped people in their tracks on Sunday – particularly striking against the dark winter sky.

A hack in Bushy Park with the winter sun keeping the riders just warm enough.

Photo: Nic Wiseman

The Littlest Star children’s book – on sale in local shops after a remarkable 23 days from concept to reality to be on sale in time for Christmas, raising money for Shooting Star Chase.

Winter berries in Bushy Park set against a blue sky.

Photo: Peter Denton

The Tearfund Christmas Carol Service filled the Landmark Arts Centre with heavenly voices last week.

Photo: Andy Wilson

Written by local author and Baptist Minister Richard Littledale, it had its first public reading at an advent event for local families last week. The little story with a surprising twist in its tail wowed adults and children alike.

Richard is now looking for people to be part of a Christmas miracle. He is looking for local sponsors to get the story printed in time for Christmas. He will donate the text, and an illustrator in Durham will donate the illustrations. The little books could then be sold with every penny going to Shooting Star Chase Hospice in Hampton.

Contact r.littledale@btinternet.com if you are interested.

[Update] Due to an amazing collaborative effort, the book has now been produced in less than three weeks and is available to buy in time for Christmas!

You can order the book online here or pick it up locally at:
As it is
Bottega
Cavan Bakery
Ellis Fine Foods
Fun Factory
Happy Potter
One Small Step
Play Inside Out
Synchronicity
Vidatherapy

If you wish to sell the book to help raise funds for the charity, please contact Richard.

Starting this Saturday 3rd December with Stanley Primary Schools Christmas Bazaar (12-3pm), St Mary and St Peter’s Schools Christmas Fair (1-4pm) that will include tombolas, raffle, Santa’s grotto, bucking bronco Rudolph and many Christmas present stalls and finally Collis School international Christmas Fair (2-5pm) with steel band, Santa’s Grotto and tastes from around the world.

This weekend also sees the return of the unusual sight of a multitude of Santa’s running through Bushy Park for the Princess Alice Hospice Santa Fun Run. On Sunday 4th December there will be a morning and afternoon run as well as Christmas activities and treats for the whole family.

If you’re itching to get the decorations up, you can also pick-up a Christmas Tree On Sunday at Collis School 10am-12pm or from the at Diana car park in Bushy Park every day now from now until Christmas Eve 9am-6:45pm.

Late night shopping and 15% discounts will be available at The Loft on Tuesday 6th December from 6pm onwards. The following weekend on Saturday 10th December two local schools will also be selling Christmas trees – St Mary and St Peter’s School (9am-12) and Stanley Primary School (10:30am-1pm).

Finally if you’re out and about on the 17th December you might chance across a sea of red Christmas hats in local pubs – the 5th annual Christmas Crawl will be making its way across the area via 20 pubs in 12 hours whilst collecting donations for Shooting Star Children’s Hospice.

The meeting was organised by The League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital and local General Practitioners, in response to their concerns about the future of the Hospital.

Since April 2011, TMH has come under the control of Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust (HRCH). The Trust is currently applying to obtain Foundation Trust status, which would include the ownership of the hospital. If such a Trust were formed, it would be comparatively small and could therefore be exposed to a further merger – a potential move that worries GPs that it would cease to be a ‘community hospital’.

Chairman of Teddington Society, Baroness Jenny Hilton chaired the meeting and opened the event commenting, “Teddington Memorial Hospital is a wonderful local resource and I am so pleased to see so much support here tonight for our hospital.”

Local General Practitioners iterated that the hospital should remain locally accountable and responsive to local needs, adding that the GPs strongly support finding an alternative way to secure the future of the hospital – a move overwhelmingly supported by the audience in a vote (350 for, 3 against).

Another meeting will be held at the same venue in January to report the progress of this work any other news back to the community. You can read more about the history of the hospital here.

The museum seeks to help the public understand more about learning disabilities through exhibitions, events and educational activities and to also celebrate achievements of people with these disabilities.

To provide this service, a volunteer scheme is being created with Richmond Mencap and an enthusiastic museum volunteer coordinator is being sought for the museum to be involved in the day-to-day running of the centre. More details here or email ian.jones-healey@downs-syndrome.org.uk if you are interested.

If you wish to see the theatre itself as nature intended (during a performance) in addition to the recent “Night at the Opera” there are some events planned in the near future including an evening celebrating the Humour and comedy songs of Teddington-born Noel Coward on the 19th November 2011.

In addition to their annual Christmas Carol concert on the 8th December, on the 3rd the Kingston Chamber Orchestra will also be holding a charity concert of popular classics in aid of the Down’s Syndrome Association.