Branch History

Origins and early development

The branch had been meeting informally for some time when it became formal in 1986. At this time, the area covered included Crawley, which later split to form its own branch, chaired by Dr. Fred Johnstone.

There is little real information available about the branch until 1999, except that early meetings were held at the Phoenix club at Forest School.

From the early days, the branch was involved in fundraising, meetings with speakers, and summer outings. From the late 90s, the branch had a number of Chairs, with Gordon Middleton for 2 years from 1999, then Jacqui Gerrard for 2 years. Gillian Berry joined as branch secretary in late 1999. In 2003, Gillian carried the branch for some time, acting as Chair along with her role as secretary. When I joined in March 2006, to fill a vacancy as Chair, the branch had 80 members, and the only regular activity was the physio at Horsham Hospital, set up in 2001 by Physiotherapist Chris O’Riordan and still running today (Chris is still a branch member).

Meetings which started at the Phoenix club moved after many years to the Millennium Hall at Roffey in 2002, followed soon after by a move to free use of Park Side, the Sun Alliance office, for about 3 years. Meetings were then held at the Church hall in North Heath Lane, which we outgrew, so moved to Age UK's Lavinia House behind the Drill Hall for evening meetings and started alternate afternoon meetings at North Heath Hall. In 2011, we moved to the Baptist Church, by the Iron Bridge, for evening meetings. The lockdown changed everything, and when we were able to get going again (sooner than most with the advice and support of Parkinson's UK), we started up in Mannings Heath Village Hall, where we already ran many activities. The hall had excellent ventilation, parking, a quiet area with few people about, and a reasonable cost.

Who's who - Back in the day

People - a number of names spring to mind:

• Early newsletters by Rita Monk, who was with the branch from the early days and also looked after publicity.
• Eileen Farmer produced the newsletters for many years, with Sue West picking up the reins in 2013 through to 2024.
• Raffles were run by Shirley Fuller for over 15 years, until Joan and Mike Goulder took over in 2015 and are still going strong.
• Jane Roach Treasurer, until Dennis Saunders took over in 2010.
• Margaret Killick, committee member, and champion fundraiser.
• Tony Standing, who started the town collections in 1999 and ran them until Dennis took over.
• Judy Easter, committee, and catering.
• Patricia Faulkner has been on welfare for many years.
• Mick Hockley has been on the committee for many years.
• Tom Dellman (chair for 2024 until work and family pressures forced his retirement but he is still on the committee) who, with Parkinson's nurse Stevie, got together a Working Age Group in 2023.
• Carol Matthews is the past secretary and current membership secretary.
• Patricia and Julian Davies have run some major fundraising events over the years.
• Steve Allen is a disco specialist.
• Jacqui Allen is a fundraiser, scared of heights but abseiled the Spinnaker Tower and Guildford Cathedral along with a major Zipwire and aeroplane 'wing walk'.

Fundraising

Liz Roberts, our Secretary since 2019, has a long history with Parkinson's. Liz was the secretary for Spring, a small charity based in Horsham and set up in 2000 to fund research as Parkinson's UK (or as it was known then, The Parkinson's Disease Society) did little research. In 2005, under new chief executive Steve Ford, Parkinson's UK started investing heavily in research and eventually Spring closed and handed its assets to PUK.

We have been blessed with great volunteers, especially Barbara Scarborough, Sue's sister, who has run Pilates and chair dancing for many years. David Sanderson Pilates, Maz Castray, as a youngster, sang at branch garden parties at the late Jo Longley's and went on to create a branch choir on occasions to sing songs for which she has written the words and music along with playing the instruments and creating the recording. More recently, Art workshops run by Aimee Bleach have been a great success.

Investing in research and local care

The first Parkinson's nurse, Judith Oakley, who started in 2002, was partly funded by the Parkinson's UK scheme, at a cost of £30,000 over 3 years. In 2018, we lost our nurse due to a reorganisation of nurse areas and had a gap of 1 year. We were left without a nurse for our area because of an NHS area reorganisation, and Judith covered several NHS areas. We were not helped by our area, who apparently previously had not paid its fair share of costs. We started a major campaign involving the local paper, HO, and our MP, and after a year, were successful with Stevie Lewis joining just to cover the greater Horsham area, which runs down to Steyning.

The branch starts 2025 with a thriving working-age group, thanks to whom we have this website. The branch has successful gatherings and many activities, developed over the years for all. In the past 14 years, we have sent £131,000 to HO for nurses, research projects, and during the lockdown, support for the help desk. £60,000 came from Ron Kent's legacy (funding three research projects), and £71,000 was raised by the branch.