Eighty people gathered on a very rainy night to celebrate the 2022 Christmas Big Night Out on Saturday at the Corbridge Parish Hall. Hosted by the Corbridge Youth Initiative and ourselves, the revellers enjoyed a three course buffet meal, one of Bill Cunningham’s fiendish photo quizzes and dancing to music from Tapestry. The hall and tables were beautifully decorated with festive lights and the substantial raffle was made up of some very generous prizes from Corbridge traders and villagers. Over £1,300 was raised, to be split between the Charlotte Straker Project and the Corbridge Youth Initiative.

Berenice Groves, Chair of the Trustees said, “thank you to all who worked so hard to make Saturday night such a success. The food, dancing and company was fabulous and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying themselves. One aspect of the night stood out to me personally – the wonderful warm welcome given to our new Ukrainian neighbours and how much they joined into the spirit of the evening. Thank you to all those who donated raffle prizes, those who helped set up and clear away and all our hardworking volunteers. The whole event was an inspiring example of the young and older members of the Corbridge community working together to organise an excellent fundraising night.”

Thank you to Bill C for the photographs – you can view them all by clicking on the link below https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAhLKH

Jodie is a member of our care team and is also a fully qualified massage therapist. She has many years’ of experience in different types of therapies including Swedish massage, Indian head massage and lymphatic drainage and she now offers relaxing shoulder, neck, hand and leg massage to our residents. Jodie has always wanted to introduce therapies into a care home setting to introduce relaxation for the residents in the comfort of their own home. The therapies promote relaxation by using light, sweeping strokes to help relax and release muscle tension, which is very important to those residents experiencing aches, pains and joint stiffness. Jodie carries out the massage wherever is most comfortable: in their rooms; or (as you can see by the photos) even outside – wherever the individual is most relaxed. Muriel absolutely loves the sessions and says “it is absolute bliss. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy it, and it makes me much less achy afterwards.” Colin says “oh it’s a dream, just so relaxing and I almost drift off to sleep. It’s wonderful to be taken care of.” Alan, who is pictured enjoying a leg massage says “she’s a lovely lady and so gentle. And we have a good chat too”. Jodie is definitely a favourite. Thank you to her from all the senior team – being able to combine her caring and massage expertise means that Jodie is constantly in demand and being kept very busy!

Remembrance Sunday always means such a lot to our residents, so we organised a walk down to the centre of Corbridge village to show Jessie, Muriel and Margaret the touching displays of Remembrance poppies around St Andrew’s Church.

Margaret said “it was beautiful weather and it was lovely to be able to sit outside and see how the poppies were made and displayed. They were very cleverly crafted and the flood of poppies outside the church wall were beautiful. I can’t wait to visit the village again, especially if it’s as warm and sunny as last time.”

Many of our residents had family members that served in the forces, or were members themselves and everyone is very keen to mark Remembrance Day. As well as a church service at Charlotte Straker House, we held a minute’s silence, listened to our residents’ recollections and memories of World War 2 and previous Remembrance Days, and watched the broadcast from the Cenotaph in our communal lounges.

Cheryl Kennedy is a Registered Nurse who has joined our Senior Management Team as our Clinical Support Lead. Cheryl completed her nursing training in 2012 and has worked in different roles, including acute care, hospice and elderly medicine. She told us that “I have always had a passion for palliative and end of life care. As nurses we cannot change the outcome but we can affect the journey for our residents and their families. For me, nursing isn’t just a profession – it’s a passion for caring for people. I strive to show the residents the same kindness and compassion I hope others will show to my loved ones.”

Pam Crawley, our Registered Manager added “I am delighted that Cheryl has joined us as part of our senior management team. In her new role Cheryl will be responsible for clinical oversight of the service through both working as a part of the team and through line management responsibilities for our nursing team. She is key to the development of practice across both the care and nursing teams at Charlotte Straker House.”