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Thursday 28th August 2025 – Club Meeting – Speakers, Anna Rains and Luke Hughes with a presentation about The East Cheshire Hospice.
Anna began by explaining that she had been involved with the East Cheshire Hospice as a volunteer and Trustee for over 30 years and so would be explaining the structure and historical developments of the Hospice over the years, whilst later, Luke Hughes will explain the up-to-date situation with Hospice funding and extra services which extend their work into the local communities within their catchment area.
Continuing, Anna pointed out that the Hospice was now 4 times larger than it was when she first became involved and size brought extra problems and responsibilities with fund raising efforts as they receive very little direct financial support from central government. Where Hospitals work with a mandate to keep people alive, the Hospice has to concentrate on giving the best form of ‘End of Life’ care possible. Relatives of patients always say how much they appreciate the care and attention their loved ones have received. The scope of the Hospice has increased over the years and they now provide care for Dementia patients, Motor Neuron Disease suffers as well as Cancer patients from the age of 18 upwards.
The Hospice relies on an army of nearly 600 volunteers as well as the permanent full time staff and these volunteers raised £157,000 last New Year by collecting and the disposal of used Christmas trees.
The work of the Hospice expanded to include the ‘Hospice at Home’ programme in 2017 and now includes its coverage to include Knutsford through the ‘Knutsford Home-First Team’ and which includes assistance with respite provision for carers.
Anna concluded her section of the presentation by asking members to consider making a donation to the Hopsice. Today by dropping a little into the Hospice collection bucket or by consideration of a legacy donation through members’ Wills. Unlike larger organisations, the Hospice doesn’t enjoy the element of scale with a budget which would allow them to advertise on television so every little helps.
Luke Hughes took over from Anna and explained that it currently costs £9362 per day, every day, to keep the Hospice running. The ‘Sunflower Living Well Centre’, which supports day services, has doubled its capacity since a recent refurbishment and the PACE 24hour helpline showed increasing demand. Luke mentioned that most contributions they receive are for under £100 and other funding was supported by Community events and the Hospice’s own Lottery together with an annual ‘Starlight Memory Walk’ held at Capesthorne Hall which is the main fundraising event.
Wednesday 27th August 2025 – Bowls – Northwich Probus v Knutsford Probus
On a morning with threatening skies the bowlers of Knutsford and Northwich met at the magnificent surroundings of the Owley Wood Recreational Centre.
The games were in the main competitive except for 2 which Knutsford won by a large margin. As it was it was those two games that tipped the result in Knutsford’s favour with the visitors coming home with a victory of 62 points to 50.
Thursday 21st August 2025 – Walk – Plumley and Peover
The Walking Group met at The Golden Pheasant for a walk around Plumley and Peover. After passing over the Chester railway line and the ‘Peover Eye’ walkers crossed several fields around the Ineos Brine facility seeing several Ineos ‘Granadier’ off-road vehicles passing along the lanes. The pathways led the group past a nature reserve which was formerly the site of an ammunition factory during the first world war. The walkers returned to the Golden Pheasant for an excellent lunch.
Thursday 14th August 2025 – Club Meeting – Speaker, Dr. Clive Feingold, with a talk entitled ‘From Then ’til Now’
Clive began by outlining his heritage as a descendant of immigrants who travelled from Ukraine and Austria to find a more liberal life in the UK towards the latter part of the 19th century. Arriving with very few possessions and little money, their circumstances became their driving force towards betterment as they worked hard in blending in within their local communities. Their descendants mostly made successful careers in professional disciplines such as medicine and the law. Clive was no exception and became a successful Dentist working at practices in Bury and the Royton area of Oldham. Clive lamented that when he became qualified, as the youngest of all his siblings, he came to tell his father about his successful graduation but, by that time, his father’s Dementia level was such that he didn’t recognise him as his son.
Over the years it had become the family’s ‘modus operandi’ to be self critical and seek to better everything they did. They were taught to ask themselves ‘Can I do this any better?’ and then answer by proceeding to self improvement in everything they tackled.
Self-improvement was a theme he tried to instil in many of his employees and was mindful to pay them well to keep them on board. He told of one dental mechanic he wanted to use in his practice and he’d gone to the great length of supplying him with a van in order to facilitate his involvement over many years.
This partnership remained strong for many years and the mechanic repaid Clive with some social friendship and connections in caravanning and sailing in the Lake District and further afield.
It was his connections in Cumbria that led Clive to initially give a talk to Grange-over-Sands Probus and now he has expanded to visit ourselves and other Probus Groups as a means to collect charitable donations in favour of The St. Ann’s Hospice in Heald Green.
Wednesday 13th August 2025 – Bowls – Knutsford Probus v Macclesfield Probus
The combined members of Knutsford Rex and Tatton Probus Clubs played host to Macclesfield Probus at the Knutsford Bowling Club. The afternoon was exceptionally hot so it was decided to reduce the time the bowlers should spend on the green. At the half time break Knutsford were looking strong going in with a 9 point league so the Macclesfield team had a challenge for the second half. As it was the Knutsford team consolidated their superiority coming in with a victory of 78 points to 43.
Thursday 7th August 2025 – Walk – Chelford Sand Quarries
Members were led on a new walk taking in some of the sand quarry lakes which feature in the Chelford area. The walk took in several nature reserves around these waters where there were opportunities to see birdlife and forage for wild fruits such as sloes and blackberries. An excellent lunch was taken at the Egerton Arms in Chelford.
Tuesday 5th August 2025 – Bowls – Stockton Heath Probus v Knutsford Probus
It was a pleasant change for the Knutsford bowlers to venture to a new venue as they progressed on what is so far a very successful season.
A trip down, or is it up, the A50 to the splendid Victoria Park in Warrington. The bowlers of Stockton Heath Probus being hosts to our guys from Knutsford. The morning had been subjected to heavy rain but with quite a strong breeze and warming sunshine conditions were ideal.
Neither team knew what to expect but as usual the teams were a good mixture of experienced and leisure bowlers. At the half time break Knutsford’s undefeated season looked in danger of coming to end as the home team lead by a small but threating 5 points. With the confidence that a good winning run brings the visitors met the challenge and despite a couple of close games the Knutsford bowlers came out on top by 72 points to 60.