Cookham Discussion Board

As many of you know, this year has been a very hard one for me personally and for Oxfam.The death of my dear husband Charles, the pandemic and the fact that the government has savagely cut the overseas aid budget has made organising the fast and the coffee morning very daunting.
 
One of my favourite sayings is “When the going gets tough the tough get going" and I still get up every morning and remind myself that we can all make a difference for those who, more than ever before, need our compassion and the basic necessities of life.  It is quite simply a matter of justice.
 
I shall be at Sainsburys collecting for 30 hours over Friday 15th, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of October with my trusty cardboard friend who will "fast". We have our coffee morning with a speaker the week before on Wednesday 6th of October, 10.30am at the Holy Trinity Parish Centre, Cookham. Tickets are £10 and available from 01628-671735. Every penny goes to Oxfam.
 
If you are kind enough to sponsor me, please let me know if your Gift Aid status has changed. You can send me a cheque (payable to Oxfam not to me!) to: Spindlewood, High Road, Cookham. SL6 9JT, bring me a donation if you happen to be passing, or go to
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/barbara-walmsley5 and donate there, although Gift Aid cannot be added that way.
 
Please think kindly of this ageing 84 year old who is still tough, passionate and ambitious!

Barbara Walmesley

Tim Finch, who is coming to speak at the Coffee Morning at the Parish Centre on Wednesday 6 October, who grew up in Cookham, is now a novelist. His latest novel, Peace Talks was published to great acclaim by Bloomsbury and was shortlisted for the prestigious Costa Books awards.  It has been published in six countries in total.

For many years, Tim worked on refugee issues and his first novel The House of Journalists was based on his experiences. In 2016, Tim worked with the world famous artist and activist Ai Weiwei on the making of his epic documentary on the refugee crisis Human Flow.

Tim started his career as a journalist at the BBC, working mainly at Westminster. He joined the Refugee Council as director of communications, moving to the leading progressive think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research in 2008, to work on refugee and migration policy issues.

In 2016, he set up a communications agency specialising in migration work and 2017 became the founder director of Sponsor Refugees, having helped to pioneer the idea of community groups sponsoring refugee families in their neighbourhoods.

He helped to found the arts and migration organisation Counterpoints Arts and remains the Chair of its Trustee Board. He is on the board of several other organisations.

He lives in London with his wife, Claudia Hammond, the writer and BBC Radio 4 presenter.