That our Club has a wealth of remarkable talent was in evidence this week with the revelation by Steve Swarbrick that fellow member Dr Tony Davies has had his book of poems published. The book, titled “The path goes where your feet fall”, demonstrates his intellectual capacity, sensitivity and honour that endears Tony to all of us.

Our speakers this week were Edward Kendrick and Dean Plant of Severn Freewheelers, the emergency voluntary service. We were amazed to learn that Severn Freewheelers provides a free at point of service motorcycle courier facility to all hospitals locally. For example, they deliver blood, biopsies, MRI scans, drugs and essential equipment. They are on call 365 days a year, from 19.00hrs to 07.00hrs, all day at weekends and on public holidays.

They use powerful motorcycles and all their riders are highly trained, mature individuals, many of whom are retired and who want to give something back to their community. They are all unpaid volunteers and they receive no centralised funding from any source. They average 100,000 miles a year with some 3,500 call outs.

Bob Young thanked Edward and Dean on our behalf and commented on their total anonymity in that the patients who benefited were invariably unaware of their service.

On 15 September we shall have an intriguing account of Busting Brain Myths by Dr Katy Bellamy followed by The Arctic on 22 September.

CHRIS DONOUGH