Henley Lions Club

HELEN and Douglas House fundraising manager Andrea Baganz-Pritchard gave a very interesting and up-to-date presentation to Henley Lions Club at our monthly business meeting and was then presented with a cheque donation in the sum of £1,000 toward much-needed equipment for the children in the hospice.

In 2016/17, Henley Lions began an initiative, together with referrals from Citizens Advice Henley, to help those local residents who found themselves in severe fuel poverty and in need of assistance with utility bills.

All people over 70 were given a winter fuel payment by the government. We advertised this initiative locally and a good number of people kindly donated some, or all, of this money to our “winter fuel fund” and several others also donated very generous separate amounts.

Our treasurer, Robin Swift, informed us that since this small beginning, we have paid out a staggering £69,707 to utility companies for those referred by Citizens Advice.

With changed government policy, we don’t know what the future holds for our ring-fenced fund but if you would like to donate and help us continue this much-needed enterprise, we will be very grateful.

Our community services group has recently given financial donations to: Sonning Common Primary School swimming pool for swimming aids; Henley Youth Festival; Henley Youth Choir; Wyfold Riding for the Disabled and the Henley Memory Café for two river trips.

As a club, we have sadly experienced two members passing and several moving away. We would like to welcome new members to join us, we can be contacted via our website, henleylions.org.uk

You can also join us at our monthly meeting to get an idea of what we are about. We meet on the first Monday of the month at 7.30pm in the King’s Arms Barn, off Market Place. The entrance is in Waitrose car park.

John Moore