Dear Members,

Although we continue to find ourselves in the midst of the Covid crisis, I am pleased to acknowledge the ongoing efforts of our very dedicated tutors.  They have continued to offer exercise programmes by phone for so many of our members, and despite the weather, the walks that were started at the end of August, continue to take place across North Gwent on a weekly basis.

We are all very hopeful that the introduction of the Covid vaccination will soon see our lives returning to some sort of normality.  With this in mind, the Trustees have already engaged in discussions on how to reintroduce the exercise class based activities that our members valued so much before the Covid crisis commenced.

In preparation for this, the charity has strived to attract continued funding and I am pleased to announce that we have recently benefited from a sizeable donation from the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s Charities Committee.  The donation was then added to the £4,000 plus that we raised from our Everest Challenge ‘virtual walk’. We also owe a great deal of thanks to Kathy Cleveland who has once again been pivotal in organising this year’s Christmas Raffle which is due to be drawn on Tuesday 15th December 2020.  I’m sure the raffle will help increase our funding further as it has done in the past.  A special thank you to all those who have supported our fundraising efforts and made donations during this challenging time.

On behalf of my fellow Trustees can I take this opportunity to pass on our gratitude and thanks for all of the hard work and support given by Maggie Woodhouse, North Gwent Charity Secretariat, who has very recently decided to resign as a trustee of the charity. We wish Maggie all the best for the future.

Finally, can I wish all our members a very happy Christmas and a prosperous, healthy New Year.  The trustees are looking forward to seeing you all again when the classes resume next year.

Best regards