THE 249th meeting was held at Badgemore Park Golf Club on Thursday, May 11.

The chairman welcomed the members and reported on many members who are struggling with their health.

Teresa Johnstone was then introduced as our speaker to talk about Riverside Counselling Service, a charity providing professional, affordable counselling.

This was a very interesting and informative talk detailing the work of the charity, which was founded in 1989 and is based at the Friends Meeting House.

It is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and all the counsellors are highly trained, committed professionals. It has 30 volunteer counsellors.

Teresa, herself a psychotherapist, told us of the enormous need for such work as mental health is the poor relation in the NHS and patients can go for years without help.

The work has been mainly with adults but it has now become obvious that many youngsters also need help so Riverside is setting up a new project, The Space, especially for the young.

Riverside is also hoping to set up more groups and find premises.

Its chief problem is not having its own premises, so funding is needed for rent and paying for the supervision of the therapists.

There was some very reassuring feedback from patients and professionals.

As this was our charity meeting, a cheque for £300 was given to Riverside.

The raffle prizes were announced during lunch.

The next meeting will be Thursday, June 8 when Rosemary Hadland will give a talk called “Islay, queen of the Hebrides, in photographs”.

Anyone interested in joining should call the speaker secretary, Marion Whitaker, on (01491) 628629.