Schools help to boosthospital garden party

Battle Abbey Preparatory School choir got Saturday’s event on the hospital lawn off to a tuneful start.

Pupils of St Mary’s School, Wrestwood, which offers specialised care for youngsters with speech and language difficulties and where sign language is a key element of education, touched the hearts of everyone by signing to music.

Little Common Primary School’s dance club rounded off a family occasion with a spirited display of their skills.

Last year the league was able to invest in more than half a million pounds worth of hi-tech medical equipment for the benefit of local patients thanks to the generosity of supporters.

But as the charity’s chairman, Cllr Stuart Earl, emphasised, league membership has plummeted to under 300.

Town Mayor Cllr Abul Azad set an example after opening the event by signing-up at the membership tent.

Together with the chairman, the mayor toured every stall, side-show and element of an event organised by league vice chairman Mark Sivyer and supported by both town organisations and units from Bexhill Hospital.

In the Health Centre, the mayor found volunteers led by committee members Harriet Chapman and Audrey Kerr battling to keep pace with the demand for tea, coffee and cakes.

Physiotherapists from the Irvine Unit where league has purchased a £50,000 device to help stroke patients learn to walk again had a stall.

Lesley Guthrie, matron of the league-funded renal dialysis unit and her staff had raised £162 with a raffle supported by patients who are saved the three-times-a-week journey to Brighton by the local facility

Treasurer Chris Ashford said the event raised £3,250.