At our monthly meeting for April, Liz welcomed the members, guests and our speaker. We then sang Jerusalem.

Our speaker was Dr Simone Paulson (Jackie’s daughter) and she talked to us about being a Paediatrician at Southampton Hospital. Dr Simone gave us a fascinating talk about the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Southampton and the training she has done to achieve this, from attending Brockenhurst College , Oxford, Poole Foundation Training and Specialist Paediatric Training since 2017!

We found out the the PICU has 16 beds to care from children from birth to 18 years -2/5 of which are under a year old.

We learnt how much equipment is needed for 1000 children a year that are treated at PICU, the team of staff needed, the specialist ambulance and staff needed for the “Retrieval Service’.

We ooh’d and aah’d at the photo of Dr Leo, one of a team of therapy dogs that ‘attend ‘work’ at the unit. We saw a video showing the important part that the therapy dogs play in helping to show children what the procedures entails.

We learnt that each child is given an elephant to take home, along with the handmade quilt on their bed. This is very pertinent as the Charity Class in theNew Forest Show is to make a quilt for PICU. See here for more details.

When we learnt that one of the Doctors was running the London Marathon to fundraise for PICU to help to raise the £180,000 needed for a new Specialist ambulance for the unit, we had a collection and raised over £160. We will be collecting at our May meeting too. You can also sponsor Dr Michael Griksaitis here.

Then talk was both excellent and insightful and Brockenhurst WI are extremely grateful to Dr Simone Paulson for taking the time to give us such a great talk.

After the talk, Liz conducted the business element of the meeting and thanked Janice for running the reception desk, Britta and Jenny for serving the refreshments, Maureen and April for doing the raffle, Janette for the table flowers and the committee for setting up the room.

Jackie was collecting Subs as April is the start of the WI subscription year and fees of £51 are due this month. Of this £51 Brockenhurst WI receives £25.10, Hampshire Federation receives £12.05 and the National Federation receives £13.85. It would help us greatly if you could pay your subscription of £51 by bank transfer. Please puts your surname and subs as the reference e.g. Smith Subs. If you require the bank details. Please contact us.

We had a raffle run by Maureen and April.

We also had our ‘Competition of the Month’ of a single bloom in a vase. Members voted for their favourite with a silver coin and the winner was the Maureen with the most coins for her tulip. Donations go to ACWW.

Julie gave us a campaign update. We have received two letters from our MP, Sir Julian Lewis saying that he is researching the lack of NHS Dentists in this area and has raised the matter in parliament. Julie has also written again to invite him to the WI report Parliamentary event on 23rd April.

Julie reminded us of fundraising walk with coffee and cake in aid of the ACWW ‘Walk the World’ campaign. This will be held on Tuesday 29th April, starting at 10.30am from Wilverley Plain Car Park. The walk will be approximately 2 miles. Non-walkers are invited to join us at approximately 11-45-12 noon for tea/coffee and cake. Please contact us for more details.

Julie also mentioned WI4U You should have received an email from Hampshire WI letting you know that there is now a newsletter from them that lets you know directly of their information and activities (so you can book events before they fill up!) You need to sign up for for it and you can do so by clicking here. The response will come from the Hampshire WI Mailchimp account. Please do this as it will save our Secretary a lot of work and it will also keep you better informed. If you need help signing up for this newsletter, please ask.

The WI Learning Hub (formerly Denman) run a great range of courses and on offer this month are free digital technology courses. So if you need IT help, why not Unlock your digital confidence with the Barclays Digital Wings. Stay informed about the latest courses, training sessions, and events on the WI Learning Hub by subscribing to their newsletter. Simply click here to sign up or

We had our collection box for toothpaste and toothbrushes for our Dental Health Matters campaign.

There were lots of sign-up sheet for our various activities, including the Needlework Fiesta on 25th and 26th April where donations of cakes and volunteers are needed as this is our major fundraising event of the year.

We had 3 members with Birthdays this month.

The meeting ended with the raffle being drawn and members looking forward to a range of forthcoming activities – something for everyone!

Our next monthly meeting is on Monday 12th May 2025 and is  & AGM with speakers Baz & Carole Hamblyn -“Lavender the forgotten herb”. Brockenhurst Village Hall – arrival from 7pm for a 7.30pm start.