BECCLES CHARITIES GET TOGETHER TO PROVIDE SPECIAL BED

Beccles and District Lions Club together with the Beccles Diamond Jubilee in Sickness Fund, Beccles Helping Hands and Beccles Townlands Charity have all contributed to provide a special ‘user adjustable’ Bakare Bed for Mrs Sue Foster, needed because of her permanent ongoing health conditions. 

Mrs Sue Foster on the new Bed surrounded by representatives from Beccles & District Lions Club, Beccles Diamond Jubilee in Sickness Fund, Beccles Helping Hands and Beccles Townlands Charity who came together to provide it.

Sue Foster said “I cannot thank these organisations enough for this bed it has changed my whole life. As my illness is permanent and so debilitating I do need to rest as much as I can and before I received this bed I was merely surviving - with only little or no sleep at all. Now I am able to rest whenever necessary during the day - and also get a good night’s sleep without having to disturb my husband to ask him to help me move or adjust the pillows. With this wonderfully versatile bed I can make the relevant adjustments myself. It really has made such a difference - my life is so much easier now.”

Lion President Chris Lambert said “With the help of our friends from the other Beccles Charities it has been both a honour and a pleasure to be able to provide this Bakare Bed for Sue. She has suffered over many years with such courage and strength that we all felt that the least we could do was to help her where we could and clearly this Bed has proved a very good place to start.”    

Beccles Lions Welfare Officer, Lion Dermot Wesley-Smith added “Sue approached Beccles Lions Club asking if we could help. Naturally we wanted to and so we spoke with our friends in the other Charities. After finding out more information and discussing it further with Sue, we all felt it was a very worthwhile project.

It is at times like these that we have to acknowledge the very generous giving of the people of Beccles and others who attend our Fund Raising Events. Without such giving we are not able to help others and change their lives as this amazing Bed has done for Sue.”

Sue was very happy to demonstrate just how versatile the new Bed was to representatives from the Charities that had contributed to. They were Doctor Tony Bubb from Beccles Diamond Jubilee in Sickness Fund, Mr Gary Johnson from Beccles Helping Hands and Mrs Gillian Campbell from Beccles Townlands Charity

ANOTHER DEFIBRILLATOR - THIS TIME AT THE LIBRARY

The new Defibrillator officially accepted by the Mayor Elfrede Bramley-Crawshaw on 30th March 2019

Gifted to the Town by Mr Tony Clarey in memory of his parents Derrick & Stella Clarey this new defibrillator is at the rear of the Community Library - who have volunteered to check and manage this life saving facility. It is easily accessible from Roy’s Car Park.

Tony Clarey - whose life was saved by the use of a defibrillator approached Beccles & District Lions Club, who, with money raised by local people, have previously arranged for placement of a machine at the CAB in the Town Centre and another at Beccles Railway Station.

Beccles Mayor Councillor Elfrede Brambley-Crawshaw with Lion President Chris Lambert

The new Defibrillator was officially accepted by the Mayor, Councillor Elfrede Bramley-Crawshaw. The Mayor said “We do really appreciate all the hard work that Beccles Lions Club do for the town of Beccles and the surrounding community and it is with great pleasure I accept this, their 3rd Defibrillator, on behalf of the people of Beccles,

Lion President Chris Lambert added “Because of the very generous gift by Mr Tony Clarey and the support of Beccles Community Library we were able to provide our 3rd Defibrillator earlier than planned, which is great news for Beccles. Also it is fitting that in our 50th year as a Lions Club in Beccles we should see such wonderful appreciation and support from the people of Beccles. A special thank you must go to Mr Tony Clarey for enabling this to happen.” 

The Mayor being shown the new Defibrillator

Lion Dermot Wesley-Smith, the club’s Welfare Chairman, added “As previously we have been working closely with The Community Heartbeat Trust who supplied the first Defibrillator. Everyone involved deserves a very big thank you, from the Beccles Community Library Manager Annaliese Matheron-Avery for her support in offering assistance to maintain the Defibrillator and of course to Mr Tony Clarey for his very generous gift that has enabled us to provide this, our 3rd Defibrillator to the people of Beccles.” 

LIONS LIGHT UP LEMAN

In common with most schools - when the Main Hall at the Sir John Leman High School was built, it was fitted with a certain amount of ‘stage’ lighting to enable drama and performances.

Unfortunately, this was done in a era when the fittings were both very expensive and very inflexible in use.

For instance - to change the ‘projected’ colour of a fitting involved using a wheeled platform some 5 or 6 metres high and climbing up with a clear coloured sheet (with the wonderful name of “Cinemoid”) of the required colour and inserting it in front of the lamp and lens - NOT something which can be done during a performance - or indeed by the Pupils - it was “call the Janitor” time.

The performing arts as taught now, require a much more flexible approach to lighting and today’s technology involves both programmable controllers and LED lighting units. Each unit contains many red, green and blue LED’s with each of these colour ‘channels’ able to be seperately controlled instantly to change the light output to more-or-less any colour.

The Staff and Pupils at the school had been fund raising for some considerable time to enable the purchase of such modern equipment, but needed around £800 to enable the purchase.

Having listened and watched a presentation at one of our twice-monthly meetings, we Lions were unanimous in approving our support to enable this purchase.

We were delighted therefore to have the opportunity to visit the School and see the equipment in action. The system is impressive and will we hope, encourage the the Pupils to indulge their creativity and achieve even greater levels of production values and performance.

Presenting the cheque - OK - it is a “staged” event!

Beccles Lion President - Chris Lambert being shown the programmable controller.