News

The Great Whitchurch Treasure Hunt – Easter Weekend April 2021

The Community Live Events Team will be handing out free Hunt Sheets by the Town Square between midday and 2pm on Saturday 3rd April.

This weekend brings the Great Whitchurch Treasure Hunt and you have until 7pm Easter Monday to find clues, decipher and hunt for the treasure.  

We will be on hand to help out over the weekend and there will be Easter Egg prizes on offer, with a prize draw for those that manage to find and picture the Treasure. 

Fun for all the family –  more info will follow later this week! 

Clipboards are advised as you work your way around town finding clues. Paynes Printers are selling clipboards for a bargain £2.99 on an order and collect basis.

WHITCHURCH  NEIGHBOURCARE – COVID  19  VACCINATIONS

We are available to drive patients to their Covid vaccination appointments.  Please call  07511 241045 to arrange transport.

Our group of drivers have all received their first Covid vaccinations, are DBS checked and drive to the highest standard of health and safety.

Don’t forget we are still doing our usual trips to doctor, hospital and dentist appointments.  We can take you to do some shopping or we can pick up prescriptions.  We are also here if you just want to chat.

We have kept going throughout the lockdowns.  Please do spread the word and please support us – after all we have been offering our services for over thirty years.

Two Rivers Medical Partnership – Covid-19 Vaccination Update Apologies if you have not been notified. The government as you will be aware, have cancelled ALL 2nd vaccinations. We have been informed by the Clinical Commissioning Group that they have cancelled all those booked by our Primary Care Network.

We are aware that there are still people attending and who have not been notified. Our sincere apologies for this, it is out of our control.  

We can however, announce that we are in receipt of our first batch of Oxford Vaccinations. You will be invited to attend as per the Government grouping system and when they allocate them.

Please do not call the surgery, email or attend the surgery for an appointment. You will be notified.

Thank you all for your patience.

Meantime, COVID is very much present and we all need to be safe. The message from the Government is “treat everyone as if they have it”

Stay safe. Best wishes from all the team at TRMP

Whitchurch Neighbourcare A reminder to all Whitchurch residents that Neighbourcare is still here and offering our usual services.

We are able to take you to GP Surgery, Hospital and Dentist appointments. We can also collect your library books for you, pick up prescriptions or take you to local shops.

Currently, we are also taking clients for their Covid 19 Vaccinations.

Whitchurch Sports & Social Club – Update 2020 was certainly a year to remember but not for the great reasons we had in mind! So pleased to be in 2021! A quick update to say that we are rolling the current membership that should have been renewed by the end of December by a few months until we know what’s happening and we can reopen. Whilst we have been closed, we haven’t been sat at home twiddling our thumbs! We (all the clubs at Longmeadow) have been awarded a grant supported by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Local Infrastructure Fund to make much needed repairs to the bowling hall roof, which is our function room during the closed season and there will be other improvements/repairs in the near future. Unfortunately, we have had a problem with uninvited visitors and subsequent vandalism and attempted break ins during these closed months. On the advice of the police, we now have CCTV and will be in contact with the police should we have anymore visits, or damage. We hope 2021 brings us the opportunity to entertain you all and we look forward to welcoming you all back.

Furlock Holmes – Our 2020 Story – With Thanks As 2020 comes to an end, we would like to reflect on the happenings of the year and the obstacles we have overcome. With COVID-19, it hasn’t been an easy year for anyone, but it has shown us the incredible community we live in and the generosity of everyone in the event of difficulty. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the kind, selfless people who have continued to support us both financially and otherwise. We had serious doubts as to whether Furlock Holmes would still be here at the end of the year, but it is down to our amazing supporters that we are. So, to each and every one of you, THANK YOU!  

Of course, the work of Furlock Holmes could never be done without the amazing volunteer team. With volunteers from as young as 10 years old, they dedicate their time and energy – whatever the weather – into keeping our animals happy and healthy. Many of our volunteers are teenagers and I know many organisations are reluctant to take on teenage volunteers, but all I can say is how fantastically our young team has stepped up and taken on the challenges faced by the rescue in 2020! A huge thank you must also go to one of the charity’s trustees, Jen Farrand, who has been an immense, crucial part in keeping the charity afloat and keeping us all smiling!  

Our aim is to empower domestic animals and provide a rehabilitation and rehoming service to those in need and this year has certainly involved a lot of it! With more residents than ever, we have been forced to fight the craze of people impulse-buying animals in lockdown and the consequences this has caused. Not only this, but we have faced an increase in the number of animals brought to us with varying health problems and needing urgent veterinary treatment. With this comes the heartbreak of those we can’t save and who pass over to Rainbow Bridge. It has been an emotional rollercoaster of a year, but with the help of the incredible John Chitty and his amazing team at Anton Vets (who are probably all sick of us by now!), we have seen many of our unwell animals recover when we thought they wouldn’t and many have even left us for their forever homes.

Many of our fundraising events that would normally have raised a great deal for the animals, were cancelled this year and we were thrown into the struggle of keeping up with the daily costs of the animals, as well as veterinary costs. We consequently introduced our COVID-safe “Family Tours” where families could come (in their bubble) to visit for a private tour around the rescue and to meet many of our animals. We thought this would be a great way to raise money and, over 200 tours later, this has shown to be true! These tours introduced us to new people and new opportunities. Many of our visitors were shocked to hear the stories and struggles of the animals at the rescue and it was a chance for us to spread the word of the importance of animal welfare and to show how pets, like rabbits, should really be kept. We have since seen many of these families go away to do more research and then return to adopt from us. These tours are certainly something we will be continuing and we thank everyone who has been so far!

As well as the tours, we saw the fantastic community of Whitchurch come together with the Scarecrow Trail to raise funds for the charity – kindly organised by the volunteers of the Whitchurch (Hants) Community Live Events Team. We tied the scarecrow trail with an event of our own, to let people (socially-distanced of course) see where the funding would be going. Thanks to the AMAZING generosity of Whitchurch, this raised a total of £2,000, which went towards various CT scans, X-rays and veterinary treatment for some of our four-legged residents!

We then ended the year with our Live Nativity and this was very popular with visitors who kindly donated a total of £700. It was such a magical event and the atmosphere was lovely – definitely an event we hope to repeat in future years!

None of what we do would be possible without the help of our supporters. From every bag of hay you bought from us, every night your pets boarded with us and every bag of veg you donated, you helped save a life. Every time you share our Facebook posts, tell a friend about us, or follow us on Instagram, you are listening to our mission and spreading our aims for animal welfare. We can never even begin to thank you enough, but please feel proud that you are the reason we are still going.

Sending virtual bunny-kisses and best wishes to all our followers. Happy New Year! Whatever challenges 2021 brings us, we will continue to fight them together – for the love of our furries!