Guild Care Blog

Millie Hiett celebrated her 100th birthday with her late husband’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and her great niece Susan Beattie and family at Caer Gwent Residential and Nursing Home in Worthing on Thursday 1 July.

Her great nice brought along her medals and framed cuttings from the Nursing Times in 1946 featuring Millie and other nurses who had returned from the far east. She leads a quiet life at Caer Gwent and is never one for talk up her past.

Having been honoured by the Queen - she received the Royal Red Cross on retiring from the Queen Alexandra Royal Nursing Corps (Q.A.R.A.N.C.) and devoting over 23 years to nursing in the Army. As a Major RN she served across the world in India, Malaysia, North Atlantic and Kenya and was mentioned in dispatches for her work in Kenya during the grave Mau Mau disturbances.

Read more in our news section.

Where do I start? The last few weeks have been so hectic we slipped behind with our blog posts. Anyway - here goes and happy reading!

Marvellous May ~ Wall Bros presented a cheque for £1,376 for our Healthy Living Programme Appeal. Great local carpet firm that has long been associated with Guild Care. Many thanks Keith, Ashley and the team at Worthing.

Chris Hare, local historian and author, took a party of walkers on a stroll around 'Worthing Old Village' - yes, it was a village once upon a time. Chris wrote 'Through the Hard Times and the Good' a social history of Worthing which was largely based on Guild Care's archives. The walk raised £120 for the appeal.

We also said farewell to two managers, Alison Williams and Kim Randall. Alison was Manager of Linfield Care Home  and an employee of Guild Care for 22 years. We wish Alison good luck in her new venture - a partnership with her sister supporting people with learning disabilities, physical and mental health needs. Healthy Living Programme Manager, Kim Randall decided to call it a day as the journey into work from East Sussex had become untenable. Kim was given a memorable send off by service users and colleagues which no-one will forget.

Staff and volunteers at Irene House Care Home served residents and relatives new dishes at their annual food tasting evening at the nursing home.

Jam packed June ~ early in the month teams from Guild Care were out in force at Worthing's Full of Life Day organised by the Neighbourhood Care Alliance providing information on activities and advice for people over 60.

Carers enjoyed a relaxing Carers Day at the Healthy Living Centre on 8 June organised by Carers Support Service. Over 30 people attended the wellbeing therapy tasters, talks, counselling, activities, lunch, advice and support.

Community prefects from Davisons School, Worthing presented a cheque for £1,000 to Jo Tuck, Community Fundraising and Volunteering Manager. The girls worked very hard organising events during the last school year and the money was added to our Healthy Living Programme appeal. Many thanks Davisons!

Our other appeal - yes, we are running two of them, received a £450 boost from the Ashdown Quiz which was amazing fun. Guild Care is hoping to raise £20,000 with the Ashdown Appeal as there is never enough money to cover the running costs of this special service which helps children between 5-16 with disabilities.

On 18 June we held the 19th Guild Care Golf Challenge at Worthing Golf Club. Many thanks to all local business who entered teams and particularly Peter Kennard and Vernon Cook for organising this sporty event. A full report is available under our news items.

The Falls Awareness Day at the Healthy Living Centre on 25 June saw over 70 people popping in for advice, exercise and tai-chi tasters, a sloppy slipper exchange plus much more.

June bowed out for Guild Care with two brilliant events on Saturday - the 1940s Summer Fayre at Ashmount Nursing Home complete with the dynamic Brighton Jive dancers and, at Caer Gwent Care Home, volunteers served over 200 delicious Strawberry teas to residents, relatives and visitors.

For further details of any of the above, plus some lovely pictures, please click on the links or visit our news pages.

Our entrepreneurial fundraisers Peter Kennard and Derek Steel pulled off another great St George's Day lunch raising £7,000 for the Healthy Living Programme Appeal.

This year the duo were delighted to welcome former boxing World Champion Chris Eubank as their guest at the Indigo Restaurant in the Ardington Hotel, Worthing.

The celebration was a sell out with 125 people enjoying a traditional English menu and singing the all time favourites from the Last Night of the Proms - Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory.

Following the lunch Chris Eubank entertained guests with tales of his exploits. A grand fundraising auction was held and Chris took along some signed personal boxing items which went down extremely well.

Many thanks to former boxing World Champion Chris Eubank for his support.

Wow - it's been a busy few days and this last post of the weekend is to thank our brilliant Brighton Marathon runners.

During what was a very warm spring day Bob Phipps, our Operations Director - Community and Care Assistant Laura Mackley completed the first Brighton Marathon raising over £1,500 for Guild Care. Brilliant effort from you both - well done!

The fact that we lost four runners to injuries during the last few weeks before the event made Bob and Laura's effort the more remarkable. Over 7,500 runners started from Preston Park with around half completing in less than four and a half hours. Bob's time was quite remarkable - 3 hours and 52 minutes. However, he was beaten in the fundraising stakes by Laura whose stirling efforts, and those of her family, helped raise over £1,000.

Over 80,000 spectators enjoyed the spectacle and supported the runners. Apparently it succeeded the organisers wildest dreams. Here's to next years!

Don't forget if you haven't yet sponsored Laura Mackley  and Bob  Phipps  there is still time to do so. Just click on their names to go to their Just Giving pages or contact fundraising on 01903 528630 if you'd prefer to speak to someone direct.

There was lots of interest at the GreenHouse Auction on Saturday 17 April.

There were an amazing 191 items under the hammer and Retail Manager Jonathan Bishop rattled through the lots like a steam train. There was no time to take your eye off the ball, a signed Albion one at that, or a number of swords, a grandmother clock and some wartime medals. The total raised was over £1,200.

If your interest was antique sewing machines, Beano comics or model planes you wouldn't have been disappointed. There was china and earthenware, silver, pewter, a Paddington Bear and a pair of skis.

There’s not need to wait until the next auction though, the GreenHouse in Meadow Road, East Worthing is always brimming full of stock. You can pick up a sofa or a wall cabinet, a coffee table, children's games, kitchenware and even some knitting wool.

If you're donating items just drop them off or for larger pieces of furniture ring as a free collection service between Shoreham and Littlehampton is available.

Kids size collection boxes for the Ashdown Club a very special service

It was lots of fun as the children of our Ashdown Club launched their own appeal on Friday 16 April to raise funds. The club which has been open for over 10 years offers respite breaks for children with disabilities such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy and Downs Syndrome.

The children took centre stage to be photographed for the Worthing Herald and the Argus newspapers with the colourful collection boxes which are hoped to raise £20,000 this year.

Ashdown needs to raise the money to help with the overall costs which include petrol for the minibuses to take the children out on trips; cost of entry fees to cinemas, bowling, farms, the circus, museums etc; maintenance costs for the building as well as some staffing costs.

As a charity, we are continually fundraising for this special service as there is always a deficit at the end of the year. It is difficult to fully cover the costs involved with helping children with disabilities. To run the service a children's nurse is needed for some sessions and all the staff and volunteers have to undergo special training. Activities such as music therapy and summer events can be funded through different schemes but it is the general day-to-day running costs that often cannot be covered by a grant.

The mini collection boxes are designed to collect small change and each box can contain up to £5 of small coins. They are available to pick up at all Guild Care Charity shops and by phoning the fundraising team on 01903 528630.

Wherever you turned over Easter there was something happening.

At Ashmount Nursing Home 20 residents had spent weeks making Easter bonnets and what a delight they were. Goodwood would have been put to shame if our Ashmount ladies had turned out on Race Day.

Bonnets were also the order of the day at the Lovett Centre. It was very difficult to judge the winners as there were 25 to choose from all beautifully decorated with chicks, eggs and flowers.

The Healthy Living Centre ladies also came up trumps with some truly wonderful hats and Barbara Virgoe won the art group's Easter Card competition.

Just prior to Easter music students from Christ's Hospital and their Director of Music Adrian Bawtree entertained Healthy Living Centre service users. Adrian had been instrumental in Guild Care's 75th Anniversary Concert and the 'Rattle and Roll' singers were thrilled by his visit. They needed little encouragement to burst into some old favourites directed by their favourite Director of Music.

It was a great evening at the Splash Awards 2010, and no - nothing to do with swimming! Worthing's sparkling local radio station SplashFM hosts this brilliant awards evening annually recognising the top people and businesses in the town. The glittering evening at the iconic Dome on the seafront awarded Best Pub, Mum of the Year, Charity of the Year, Best Friend, Lifetime Achievement, Courage Award, Gold Award, Best New Business, Top Teacher, Sporting Star and Sporting Team, Best Business, Dad of the Year and Fundraiser of the Year!

We were thrilled when Guild Care Fundraisers Peter Kennard and Derek Steel were chosen as joint Fundraisers of the Year. Peter has been a Trustee since January 2007 and has spent much of his spare time organising some excellent events with his fundraising partner Derek Steel. This awesome duo have helped raise over £33,000 for us during the past three years and still find time to run their local businesses H.D.Tribe and Jacobs Steel.

Listen to what Nicola Willett (Fundraising Manager) had to say about them courtesy of SplashFM.

Check out all the winners on the SplashFM website

It's been an incredibly busy week at Guild Care.

On Tuesday we celebrated a 100th birthday at the Healthy Living Centre. Zoe, from Findon, pops in twice a week for art and poetry classes and to catch up with friends. She was surprised with a large bouquet of flowers and an enormous birthday cake baked by Nina, our HLC chef.

On Thursday we held a Recruitment Day for new staff and were surprised by the huge number of applicants that poured through our doors. After seeing over 170 between the hours of 9.30am and 8.00pm we were really relieved to call it a day.

Many thanks to everyone who came along, it will take a few days to sift through the applications and the HR department will be in touch soon.

Well, we didn’t win but it was the taking part that mattered…and, of course, the sponsorship!