Dorothy Pountain, chairman, welcomed everyone present to an open meeting in the Methodist Church on Friday.

The guest speaker was Sarah Newton from Cornwall Hospice Care and was introduced by Olive Polglase. She gave a very interesting and informative illustrated talk on the work of the two Cornish hospices caring for adult patients - Mount Edgcumbe in St Austell and St Julia's at Hayle.

She told her audience that the annual running costs were £7.5 million pounds, 17% of which was from Government funding and the remainder from voluntary contributions, including a variety of fund raising activities throughout the year.

Her talk concluded with a short video showing the work of the hospice from a patient's perspective. She was thanked by Olive who gave her a cheque for £160 towards the work of CHC, donated by those present. Tea hostesses were Jean Rashleigh and Ruth Pascoe.

The next meeting will be on Friday, February 7 at 2.30pm in the Methodist Church when Michael Thomas will give a talk entitled "A funny thing happened on the way to the Zoo". New members are very welcome.