Aston WI February Report

Aston & District W.I. February 2020 Report

The first meeting of the year for Aston and District W.I. took place on February 7th at Broomhall Community Centre. Our new President, Rosemary Lomas, gave a warm welcome to members and visitors before informing us of meetings and outings which are taking place in the near future.

The Luncheon Club is meeting at the Bhurtphore on Tuesday February 11th Feb at 12.30. The Walking Group are meeting at Nantwich Marina on Wednesday Feb 12th 10.30 am taking you along the canal and through Dorfold.

Our speaker for the afternoon was Mr Keith Evemy. The title of his talk being "The Life and Legacy of Medicine". One of the people who has affected the way we look at medicine is Harold Shipman. He spoke of Shipman's early life when he was known as Freddie and how he nursed his mother until her death before applying to medical school.

He qualified in 1970, (the same year as our speaker) and took a position at Pontefract General Hospital. A few years later he was fined for forging prescriptions for Pethidine. He said it was for personal use and went into re-hab. It was at this time he changed his name to Harold.
He later set up his own single-handed practice with his wife working as receptionist. It was in 1988 when GP's expressed concerns at the high number of cremation forms, he was submitting. This eventually resulted in him being convicted of 15 murders.
Whilst serving his sentence, he committed suicide in his prison cell on the evening of his 58th birthday.

Since this time the way doctors are assessed has changed and systems are in place to allow staff to raise concerns.
Keith left us with the question: – Was he a Doctor who became a Murderer or a Murderer who became a Doctor?
The Vote of Thanks was given by Mrs Cynthia Gorton.
Lots of discussion followed while we had our tea and cake. The raffle took place and prizes distributed. The competition of a Pill Box was won by Mrs Joan Sweeney.

Our next meeting will be on Friday March 13th at 2pm at Broomhall Community Hall. The speaker will be Canon M Burgess his talk in entitled "For better or for Worse".

Come along and join us as Visitors and New Members are always welcome.

More details can be found on our website – www.astonanddistrictwi.org.uk

Glenys Inight & Diane Joslyn