Sisterhood!

I caught a train to a meeting today with a couple of the great volunteers I work with and it seemed like an ideal opportunity to give them a bit of publicity. As you can see, they're both quite shy!

Dorcas (left) has recently retired after a long and distinguished career as a midwife but she's still very actively involved in the community in all sorts of ways, not least in the African Elders group and in raising awareness around such issues as forced marriage and, in particular, female genital mutilation (FGM). She's the Chair of both the FGM National Clinical Group and the Liverpool FGM/Multi-Cultural Women's Advisory Group and she's something of an expert on Equality and Diversity issues.

Stella has been active in all manner of causes over the years, not least as one of the women who lived at the women's peace camp at the US Air Base at Greenham Common in Berkshire in the 1980s as a response to 96 Cruise missiles being sited there. She was arrested more times than I've had hot dinners! The peace camp itself lasted for 19 years. More recently she's been very involved in national and local organisations for stroke survivors - and she's a keen vegetable grower too!

It's working with wonderful people like Dorcas and Stella which makes my job so enjoyable and worthwhile.