May
1st May – No Meeting
8th May – Speaker
On Monday 8th May, Shaftesbury Rotary were very pleased to welcome as their guest speaker Kay McBride. Kay is the mum of Ruby-Mae, a Shaftesbury girl aged 6 who suffers from Type 1 Diabetes. Kay told us that Ruby has suffered from this life threatening disease since aged 18 months and since that age has had to have 10-12 finger prick blood tests daily to monitor her glucose levels, meaning that to date she has suffered over 25,000 finger pricks!! The readings dictate whether she has to be administered additional insulin via the pump which applies a dose direct into her tummy, or a sugar hit to stabilise her blood sugar levels. This current measuring gives no prior warning of any peaks or troughs, particularly at night or whilst at school.
Kay is now a qualified speaker for The UK Diabetic Association, and gave us a real insight into the nature and effects of this dangerous condition.
For the last few months, Kay and Dad Dave, together with their family, have been fund raising to buy a new piece of kit from the USA (currently not available on the NHS) which will place a sensor beneath Ruby-Mae’s skin and will monitor her glucose levels every 10 to 15 seconds, removing the need for any more finger pricks! The unit will also produce a running graph with every reading to enable peaks and troughs to be monitored and enable preventative measures to be taken early. The unit will send the results to mobile phones, ipads or computers of choice and alarm levels can be set to warn of any extreme readings. This unit will also “talk” to a new insulin pump that will be provided by the NHS to automatically deliver the correct insulin dose depending on each reading taken.
The total cost of the unit together with the first years supply of sensors is £10,000 and Shaftesbury Rotary are pleased to donate £1,000 towards this cause. Kay and Dave’s fund raising efforts have been amazing with it all culminating in a recent charity football match in Shaftesbury involving ex professional players, followed by a diner in the evening with guest speaker of Geoff Hurst, still the only man to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final!
Their efforts have raised the extraordinary sum of over £22,000 and Shaftesbury Rotary are proud to have been part of this.
15th May
We met at the Fleur for our monthly business meeting. International proposed we support our Dutch Twin Club with their project in South America. This is to provide a coach for the transport of disabled children. Community proposed to provide ice-creams for disabled children who are being given an opportunity to fly at Compton Abbas airfield.
We then reviewed final detailed plans for our cycle event the coming weekend.
Our AGM then followed. After this we were pleased to induct Trevor Clements as a new member
21st May
The decision was made early on to change the name of the event to North Dorset Cycle Ride, but still feature the Gold Hill Challenge.
Then followed months of planning including refining and upgrading our Website, and investing in better banners and posters and some very smart Rotary flags. The flags will not only be used for next years Cycle Ride but can be used for all our Rotary events.
It was also decided to abandon the one mile ride around town and replace it with a longer fifty mile ride.
As the big day approached there was a week or so of intensive hard work by an amazing group of people being committee members, other Rotary members and other volunteers. There were arrow signs to be positioned around all the rides and a big push on preparing for the day of the ride.
And so at an unearthly hour a band of merry (but bleary eyed) helpers gathered on Park Walk to erect the “Start” line and set up the registration areas. We were joined by our first rider at 7.00 am !!!! arriving early to acclimatize himself. Time flew by as we were surprised by the number of people arriving early for the 8.30 start to the 50 mile ride.
The weather did us proud and the perfect day just continued to get better with perfect cycling conditions.
All three starts went off without hiccup and the riders disappeared out into the country.
The first rider to return surprised us all as he stormed up Gold Hill before we had finished preparing the “Finish” line !!
Yet again the finish up Gold Hill was a big hit, enjoyed by everyone (after they had finished of course). A lot of riders, families, friends and members of the public gathered at the top of the hill making quite a big gathering with a lot of cheering, clapping and encouragement for the riders as they finished.
It was lovely to see the range of people that took part including a surprising number of children and young people. One proud Mum declaring that her eight year old daughter had raised eighty two pounds from her friends and teachers at school. Another older chap suffering from Prostate Cancer completed the ride – a very moving and poignant moment and perfect illustration of what the event is all about.
We must thank the Mayor for joining us and attending for all the Finish, adding another piece of atmosphere.
Things seemed to go smoother this year and no reports so far of marshals going missing or in the wrong place !!!! Although a small number of riders took slight diversions off the route.
In the end we had 220 entrants from a wide area. Early news was that we had raised £3300 for Prostate Cancer but hopefully could hit the £4000 mark.
This was way more riders than we expected. Our early anticipation was that 150 riders would be a great result.
This caught us out as we ran out of Medals, meaning that towards the end we had to ration handing medals out so that we could make sure that all the children finishing got a medal !!
Of course there are loads and loads of people to thanks for all sorts of help and support. This would take a good deal of space here so would just like to say a big THANK YOU TO EVERYONE to everyone involved with only our second year of our Cycle Ride.
And so, finally, next year. We have set the date for next years event as SUNDAY 20TH MAY 2018 and we look forward to doing it again and bigger. Hope to seeing everyone (and more) next year.
To see all the pictures from the day please visit James Thrift’s gallery.
Thank you.
22nd May
Mike Hurley was involved with Shaftesbury Rotary and School in 2012, when the Youth Speaks Area Final was held here, and more recently at the Rotary Young Chef Regional Final also held at Shaftesbury School.
Mike Hurley stated “I’m very impressed with how quickly Shaftesbury Rotary has kicked in, your club was extremely helpful when I organised Youth Speaks and the school has been very positive thanks to your Clubs connections ”
He also thanked club for arranging experienced judges for both occasions, and the school for their help in setting up these events. Clive chef at Shaftesbury School has expressed interest in entering students in the next competition. Mike Hurley hinted, that as Shaftesbury is geographically central within our Rotary area, it could be the venue for the next Youth Competition.
Further to his role as Youth Service Mike Hurley talked about, and brought leaflets on, the 3 ages of Rotary;
Rota kids=ages 7-12, Interact = ages 12-18 Rotaract= 18-30years
Some members were unaware that being part of Rotary could begin at an early age!
He also discussed the role Rotary plays in providing breaks for Young Carers.
29th May – No Meeting
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