Author: Admin

November 19th, 2024

In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recounts Paul’s inspiring talk about his courageous work to help people in Ukraine.

Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, Paul has been going in and out of the country taking humanitarian assistance from the UK to support local communities. This is mostly on his own, but he also works with other charities and individuals. He is just back from his 24th trip. These trips each cost between £500 and £600.

Paul showed us a video of him delivering aid in Kharkiv with background noise of alarms going off which he said is “the backdrop every day and night”. He showed us a map of Ukraine, which is the second largest European country in area after Russia, and has a population of 44 million. The map showed which parts of Ukraine Russia has occupied. 3.7 million people have been driven from their homes and many are refugees in their own country. 14.6 million people needed humanitarian assistance in 2024. The big cities are attacked every week if not daily. Paul started by working with Eden Aid, a charity hooking up Ukrainians with sponsors in the UK. He told us Dania’s story who was in Kyiv with her two children and a dog waiting to get to the UK. He drove over and picked them up. She was horrified at the destruction she saw 15-20 minutes away from her home. By the time they arrived in Poland she started to relax. She is now living in Church Stretton sponsored by a person in the Wirral and has her own home, a job and the children are in school.

We’d like to share the obituary of our dear friend Seonaid Wootton who was a long-time active member of our Ludlow and Marches Humanists group.

Seonaid’s daughter Sarah wrote a touching tribute that was published on The Guardian website on November 6th, 2024. Please see the link below:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/nov/06/seonaid-wootton-obituary

October 15th, 2024

In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd provides an
in-depth account of the thought-provoking talk by Phil Cheatle, Lead Campaign Commentator of the campaign group My Death, My Decision (MDMD).

Phil told the meeting why he had become involved in My Death My Decision. It was due to his personal experience with his mother and aunt. His mother aged 93 knew things were not going to get better and asked him to end her life. Doctors could not help her as she wished. She said “make them see sense”.

We are all living longer. A lot of heart disease and cancer are now curable but there are degenerative diseases such as dementia, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the leading cause of death in England and Wales with 1 in 8 of all recorded cause of deaths and 1 in 4 for women over 80.

In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recaps the talk by Professor Colin Kelcey about a traumatic but pivotal event in London’s history.

This was a talk by Colin Kelcey about five particular days in December 1952 when London was enveloped in smog and the city was at a standstill.

This was not the first episode of pollution where impacts on health were noted. In December 1930 in the Meuse Valley in Belgium there was an incident of fog which killed 63 people. Previously in 1911 in the same area a lot of cattle were killed and farmers found that they could only save them by moving them to higher ground – this had been realised from earlier smog events. Cows were like the canary in the mine, unusually sensitive to air pollution. Subsequently at a meeting there were ominous warnings about what could happen, it was said that if there was a similar event in London it could result in 3,200 deaths.