Last weekend saw me out litter picking and weeding the Village Hall car park alongside Cllr Nick Adams-King, members of the Parish Council and other local volunteers. It was a great community effort with over 25 people out helping over the course of the day and huge thanks to Chris Craig of the Parish Council for inspiring the effort. Wellow, for the first time, is having a scarecrow competition and it has been great to see the creativity there is locally as the scarecrows have popped up around the village.
This week I have been out and about in the constituency, with a surgery in Charlton, visits to a number of local businesses, a quick trip to Romsey Rapids to celebrate National Fitness Day, an evening celebrating women in construction at the national awards, a MacMillan Coffee Morning and a visit to Maggie's Centre in Southampton.
Maggie's is a national charity that supports people living with cancer and their loved ones. I was thrilled to be invited to the local centre to learn a little more about the work they do, which came shortly after a visit to the local Cancer Research shop in Romsey. All of us know people navigating their cancer journey, and I was reminded this week when a friend of mine shared the 5 year anniversary photo of the day she had her head shaved. I can never get over the bravery she showed but it certainly takes a resilience that we don't all have.
This weekend is the annual Walk the Test Way, and for the first time in years I am not taking part. That is largely down to a hectic diary and not managing to squeeze a quick 11 mile trot down the Test Way into my Great South Run training. However, massive thanks to all the Rotary volunteers who make this event possible, good luck to the intrepid walkers, wherever you are starting from and I shall keep my fingers crossed for decent weather for you all. This event raises thousands of pounds annually for local (and national) charities and is also a great deal of fun, I am sure I will miss being there.