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Early in the year of 2002 four of us older people in Canterbury had read that the new Labour Government
had passed legislation to ensure that statutory bodies should consult with older people on issues and provision of service that affected them.
How it started
It all started with holding a stall in the high street of Canterbury and asking people if they would like to set up a forum –
this resulted in over 80 people signing up and 70 people coming along to our first meeting.
During the years that we have built up the Forum we have lobbied Parliament on several occasions; spoken on BBC News 24 and BBC Radio Kent;
and have issued many press releases to the local papers of interest to older people.
An early campaign that we supported was to save the Kent & Canterbury Hospital. From the outset we have worked with the St Martins Mental
Health Hospital Older Peoples’ User Group; we have also been involved with the re-design of older people’s mental health service.
We have attended dozens of conferences and each year we send delegates to the National Pensioners’ Convention Pensioners’ Parliament in Blackpool.
We run a Silver Song Club on the second Monday morning of each month at the Greenhill Senior Citizens’ Club in Greenhill Herne Bay.
We have a free Christmas Lunch Party each year – we have fun….
“It is not enough for a nation to have added years of life, Our object must be to add new life to those years”
J.F. Kennedy
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