Earlier this year OPAAL received an invitation from Patron, Her Grace The Duchess of Northumberland, to send a representative to attend a Summer Garden Party in the Alnwick Garden. Her Grace held the Garden Party in her capacity as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland.
Since AgeUK Northumberland is one of our newest delivery partners in the Cancer, Older People and Advocacy programme, we passed the invitation along. The following is their account of the day:
Angela McKillop, one of our advocates for older people in Northumberland, was among 250 volunteers who recently attended the Duchess of Northumberland’s prestigious annual summer garden party.
Angela was lucky enough to be drawn to represent the volunteers who give their time freely to support the advocacy service at Age UK Northumberland. Angela had a wonderful day despite the rather chilly weather.
Angela McKillop
‘The Duchess a circulated among the guests, made a lovely speech and presented some awards towards the end of the afternoon. I spent some time promoting the advocacy service to some WI ladies and carers from Cornhill, in the very north of the county, and made arrangements to go to their next meeting. There were some lovely outfits and some delightful hats, but lots of us were grateful for our pashminas and jackets.”
The Grand Cascade at Alnwick Garden
The Duchess hosted the event at the Alnwick Garden, and was generous in her compliments to those who commit to a regular volunteering role: “There are so many extremely generous and extraordinary individuals in Northumberland who give up their time selflessly, to help others in need. This is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to them for the really valuable work they do.”
The Duchess of Northumberland
The Duchess as Patron of OPAAL previously said “I am absolutely delighted that the Cancer, Older People and Advocacy programme is coming to Northumberland. Older people affected by cancer can have such a rotten time so giving other older people with their own experience of cancer the opportunity to come forward to be trained as advocates to support them in their local community is wonderful.”
Carolyn Reynolds, Volunteer Coordinator, AgeUK Northumberland
Older People Living with Cancer 