NEWS FROM CHRISTCHURCH

Twenty two members attended our AGM held on 29th March and all but two of the existing committee were re-elected for the coming year.

We regretfully accepted the resignation of Reg Sheppard who has been on our committee since 1983 and he and his wife Margaret, were at the inaugural meeting of our Association in 1980. Shirley Hoy joined the committee in 1992 and both Reg and Shirley have made valuable contributions to the Association.

After the usual business matters had been dealt with Marnie McIvor presented a report from the International Huntington’s Association meeting held in Sydney last September. (Details of this have been published in previous newsletters).

Marnie also advised that she has been appointed Manager of a new Physically Disabled Unit for under - 65 - year olds at St Allisas Rest Home in Christchurch. This is very exciting as St Allisas already have several HD residents, and a unit for the younger disabled will certainly enhance their quality of life. We look forward to hearing more about the unit when it has been up - and - running for a few months.

On Waitangi Day we ran a food stall at a "One Day Horse Event" which was organised by one of our families to raise funds to be passed on to the Neurological Foundation to be used for Professor Richard faull’s research into HD. Due to it being one of Hororata’s hottest days on record (40’ plus!) people were mainly interested in cold drinks and ice-creams rather than the delicious filled rolls, muffins and biscuits which our members had prepared. We broke even, but $1800 was raised by the horse event for Professor Faull which was a wonderful effort.

Thanks to a very successful stall at the Sunday Riccarton Market selling ‘Bacon Sandwiches’ we managed to use up food which had been left over and frozen from Hororata and came out with a pfofit of $400. A great effort by the four members who ran this.

Mary Gilmour (our Chairperson) once again attended the camp held recently for young people and run by Wellington, as a voluntary helper. Being her second camp she knew what to expect this time and it didn’t take her quite as long to recover! She has found both camps a real ‘learning curve’ and very rewarding to be a part of. The young people are so lucky to have the opportunity to attend these camps and it is very important that they continue. Until th advent of the camps most young people from HD families were very isolated and it must be a great help for them to be able to talk to others going through similar experiences and be able to have so many of their questions answered by those running the camp.

We are looking forward to another busy year and are hoping that some of the younger people will start taking an active part in the Association - we ‘oldies’ won’t go on for ever.

Judith Baker

Back to Newsletter