High Peak Review Summer 2023

Entries invited for Mottram Horse Show Whaley author finds love in the apocalypse

By John Pasiecznik

HORSE riders and owners are invited to enter the 昀rst Mottram Horse Show to be staged for several years - and at its new venue.

Founded in 1904, Mottram and District Agricultural Society has been holding agricultural shows for well over 100 years. The last Mottram Agricultural Show took place in 2016 but because of the pandemic, bad weather, and a lack of volunteers, the popular show hasn’t been staged since then.

The 2023 Mottram Horse Show takes place from 9.00am on Sunday 20 August at the new permanent venue at Apple Street Showground, o昀 Mottram Old Road (A560) SK14 3AT. The ground is a lot 昀atter than the former showground, there is more space and ample parking for horse boxes. A water supply has been put in and a new track will be in place to cater for show trac.

Karen Wood, one of the event organisers, invites all horse riders and owners to enter the 51 di昀erent classes in four rings, for horses and ponies, in a range of skills in

horse riding, ridden and in-hand ‘showing,’ as well as fun classes and young handler classes.

There will be a Supreme Ridden Championship and a Supreme in-hand Championship to be contested at the end of the day, each with prizes of £50 and £25 for the Supreme Champions and runners-up.

Karen told The Review: “The new look Mottram Horse Show is back albeit smaller this year and not open to the general public. However, we would like as many horse riders and owners as possible to enter over 50 classes. We would like to thank all the sponsors without whom this year’s show would not have been possible.”

“Mottram Agricultural Society hope to grow the event to a full agricultural show in 2024, which will be open to the public as in previous years,” Karen added.

To book online, go to https:// mottram.lite.events

For more information about the show search for Mottram Horse Show 2023 on Facebook, or email Karen at leevale@hotmail.co.uk or phone her on 07586 343438.

By Amanda Barton AWARD-WINNING Whaley

Welliver

Bridgebased author Melissa

is celebrating the launch of her second novel for young adults, My Love Life and the Apocalypse.

Set in New York in the future, the book is about part-human bot Echo discovering love when he meets Pandora. With the rest of the human population sitting out the end of the world in suspended animation, Pandora’s the only human to wake up after her spacepod crash lands on earth. They explore the deserted city streets, searching for answers that maintenance robots, left to look after shops, libraries, and museums, can’t provide.

Described as an original, uplifting blend of romance, humour, and science 昀ction, with plenty of twists and turns, the book is aimed at readers aged 14+ who enjoyed Adam Silvera’s ‘They Both Die at the End’. Melissa began writing the novel “as a form of escapism,”

during the 2020 Covid lockdown: “I wanted to include homage to my favourite TV shows and movies, most of which were cancelled or halted in production, and create a story I could step in to. Echo, my lonely part-bot, is obsessed with vintage TV reruns. I needed a plot for my characters and setting, and thought about fairy tales, especially Sleeping Beauty. I worked out why humans would be asleep for 100 years in a futuristic setting, due to cryogenically freezing themselves

to avoid climate catastrophe, and from there it sort of took o昀. I wrote the 昀rst draft in just four weeks.”

Published by Chicken House, the book is available in paperback and as an e-book from bookshops and online retailers.

Melissa is available for workshops and talks, and o昀ers mentoring and editorial servicesfor information and to sign up to her newsletter visit www. melissawelliver.com or 昀nd Melissa on Twitter @melliver

A recent Mottram Horse Show

Melissa Welliver with her new book

Hospice aims for LGBT + Rainbow accreditation

Blythe House Hospicecare and Helen’s Trust is working alongside Derbyshire LGBT+ towards Rainbow Accreditation to ensure inclusive practices to support its sta昀, patients, supporters, and visitors.

The hospice is committed to welcoming people from all backgrounds and walks of life to access services, fundraise, volunteer, or become a sta昀 member.

It’s recognised that historically people from LGBT+ communities have experienced discrimination and inequality in healthcare and at their workplaces.

Laura Savile, HR Manager at Blythe House and Helen’s Trust, said: “We are committed to delivering services which are inclusive to all communities and have a hospice environment that’s safe and healthy for everyone

- sta昀, volunteers, supporters, patients, and their loved ones.

“The thorough Rainbow Accreditation framework gives us the opportunity to look at every department, volunteering, fundraising events, and our high street shops, to analyse gaps, identify obstacles and areas for development on our journey.

“We’re pleased to work with Derbyshire LGBT+ to achieve and embed inclusive practices at all levels of the hospice, including training for colleagues, using pronouns in email signatures and on lanyards, and liaising with local LGBT+ organisations to provide information about our services and volunteering opportunities.”

John Yates-Harold, Project Ocer at Derbyshire LGBT+, added: “We’re proud to work with the wonderful sta昀 at

Blythe House and Helen’s Trust who’ve joined a growing number of organisations as part of our accreditation scheme which ensures that LGBT+ communities have access to appropriate care and support from sta昀 who understand and appreciate the speci昀c needs of our communities. We’re very pleased to promote the work of Blythe House and Helen’s Trust and con昀dently signpost LGBT+ people to them for support.”

For more information about Blythe House and Helen’s Trust care, services, fundraising events, or volunteering, visit www. blythehousehospice.org.uk

To 昀nd out more about the accreditation programme, visit www.derbyshirelgbt.org.uk/ accreditation

Swiss students choose New Mills for their ‘Language Stay’

It was a sad day at the New Mills & District Volunteer Centre (NMVC) as we had to say good bye and good luck to two of our lovely volunteers.

We were extremely fortunate to receive an email in September 2022 from two students – Sam and Selen from Lucerne in Switzerland, who were interested in a coming to the UK to volunteer within a community. At their school, ‘Fachmittelschule, Lucerne’ all school leavers are advised to do a six week language stay in an Enlish speaking country, to support their next level education applications, with a view to working and improving their already perfect English.

They searched online for a picturesque two bedroomed property in the UK that would allow them to book a short

stay. New Mills came up trumps with a beautiful 昀at within the heart of the town and only a 2 minute walk away was a volunteer centre. Their application email request arrived at NMVC and then started a journey of planning, application processing and zoom meetings. Eventually they arrived at Manchester Airport ready for their adventure with us at the Centre.

Lorna Young, Group Coordinator at NMVC commented that ‘Sam and Selen just 昀tted in so well with our team, to travel from a foreign country at the age of 18 and immediate get stuck in with all our activities, takes courage, commitment and a great attitude. It is not something that we have done at the centre before but this experience has been brilliant

and we hope to set this up as a regular relationship with the students from Lucerne’.

Sam and Selen got involved and supported all our community led social groups, entertaining us with presentations about their lives in Switzerland, teaching us new card games, joining our knit and natter group and learning lots of new stitches!

They cooked for our Acoustic Soup group every Monday, supporting the group playing board games and of course brushing up on their perfect English. They joined our clients taking part in weekly Chairbased exercise classes. They made gallons of tea and co昀ee and are now part of our team.

They have also navigated our reception telephone system and information desk

which is usually managed by a volunteer Monday – Friday. This has de昀nitely improved their con昀dence and yesterday Selen said ‘My ability to just chat about the English weather is now second nature!’

We have also shared Sam and Selen with other organisations in our community, they have volunteered at Hay昀eld Primary school with PE lessons and reading sessions. The students are considering applying for Teaching Degrees at University and wanted to experience what our school system was like. They loved working with the children and were amazed that when it magically snowed the children still managed to concentrate on their school work.

They helped out with Youth Matters and Incredible Edibles

at the local youth club evening, worked with New Mills Festival on sharing the petition to save the Lantern Parade. They got their hands dirty at the NMVC allotment, getting the vegetable beds ready for spring planting, to grow our own produce for our weekly lunch club. Attended some of our fundraising events in particlar our English Pudding afternoon, where they got to sample over 14 di昀erent creations!

Our volunteers have loved having them here too and invited them out to other events; Morris Dancing evening with a local Soroptimist group –Sam commented ‘This was the most memorable entertaining evening, we loved it’. A volunteer lead trip to Liverpool, sharing all the secrets of the City – they both really enjoyed learning about the history and

culture of Liverpool. They also joined volunteers testing their general knowledge in the New Mills weekly Quizit.

We are so sad to see Sam and Selen leave us. We have so loved having them join us and be part of our team. It has been a pleasure getting to know them and we feel extremely previleged and thankful that they chose the New Mills & District Volunteer Centre to volunteer. I am sure we will see them again in the future.

Contact for further information: Lorna Young, Group Coordinator, New Mills & District Volunteer Centre. Tel: 01663744196, Email: lorna@ nmvc.org

Laura Savile, quoted in the release, Rebecca Mellor and Ian Robson, CEO of Derbyshire LGBT+

L-R Lorna Young, Sue Stringer, Julie Slack (behind), Hazel Body, Samira Steiner, Selen Ademi, Gill Christian

The students are considering applying for Teaching Degrees at University and wanted to experience what our school system was like.