We are delighted to welcome Michelle Reynolds as our new office manager. This is a rather delayed welcome; Michelle actually joined us as a volunteer at the beginning of the year, but our financial considerations have meant that we have only recently been able to offer her a formal position. Michelle has been working very hard to get our rather chaotic admin systems into some semblance of order.

It has been very good for Debbie and Tessa to be able to relinquish some of the load into capable hands, and very good for the developing consolidation of our Essex Dementia Care infrastructure. Thank you Michelle for all you are contributing.  If you need to contact her, Michelle works mostly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11am and 5pm; she is on our main office number 01245 363789 or at michelle@essexdementiacare.org.uk.

We seem to live in a world of acronyms these days! A phone call out of the blue a few months ago introduced us to the Charity Classic Vehicle Club, who had chosen us as recipient of the proceeds from their most recent fund-raising event. Check their website out – they do some extraordinary fund-raising stuff for charities in the Essex Area.

At the beginning of the month Debbie and Sharon went over to Kelvedon Hatch on what was possibly the coldest day since February (see photos below!) to be a part of CCVC’s autojumble event. It was a disappointing turnout because of the weather, but despite that, chairman Alan Osborn and his club colleagues were able to present us yesterday with an extraordinarily generous cheque for £1000.  Thank you Alan and friends for your kindness and your support.

I left an envelope sitting on my desk for a couple of days the other week, thinking it was an unimportant circular. When I eventually opened it I discovered a cheque for £500, sent to us anonymously via the Charities Aid Foundation. Amazing!  And very heart-warming.

The only problem with anonymous gifts is that there is no-one to whom we can say thank you . Hence this brief post. I have no idea who the donor is or how they know about us; but I hope that they take a look at the website from time to time – and so know how very much appreciated their gift is.