April 2009 Archives

A MOTIVATED runner survived being tripped and suffering injuries to complete the London Marathon in under four hours.

Karen Balcombe, of Hillside, Harefield, battled through the pain to help raise almost £1,000 for Harefield Heart Hospital.

She held a charity raffle, for which Atul Sodha from Londis donated a flatscreen television as a prize, and Harefield Football Club also gave wine and spirits.

She said: "I would just like to say thank you to the people of Harefield for all their support during my fundraising.

"During the run I was tripped over at the 10 mile mark and I was black and blue, I really injured myself, I was treated by first aiders and in the end I was just glad to finish.

"The adrenaline kept me going, I would have liked to have done three hours and 45 minutes but in lieu of what happened to do three hours 59 was great.

"All my family came along to watch and the crowd were fantastic, they kept me going."

PREPARATIONS for the village's annual remembrance day for Australian Soldiers made big news down under.

The hundreds of schoolchildren who went out picking flowers for Saturday's Remembrance service for ANZAC Day was reported in the Sydney and Melbourne Herald Sun.

Andrew Gandon, St Mary's Church Vicar, said: "This is a major community event, every child who has ever been to the village school, to the infant school and junior school, have every ANZAC day come here and laid flowers on the graves,

"If you've grown up here, it's kind of being bred into you. You have older generations who look back over the years and have really come to value it and I've come to really value it and it acts as a kind of glue really to bring people together and give them a sense of what it means to belong to this community."

The Remembrance Service will be held on Saturday at St Mary's Church, in the High Street at 3pm and will be led by preacher Reverend Canon John Cullen from New Zealand.

A PLANNED trip to see wild birds and a motor museum has been cancelled and replaced with a trip to Brighton instead.

The CAMEO trip to Bentley failed to attract the number of visitors it needed so the group will enjoy a day out to see the seaside.

The Come And Meet Each Other Group are travelling down to Brighton on May 10, and anybody who wishes to find out further details should phone 01895 822230.

THE perfect studio space for a budding young artist, photographer, or even an arts and crafts workshop is up for grabs on the High Street.

Malcolm Baxter, owner of Amberley Galleries in High Street, Harefield, is looking for somebody to fill the spare studio in the extension of his shop floor.

He said: "It would be great for a budding artist to use as a studio, but it is also a good size for an art class for a small group of students."

The shop currently offers exhibition space, framing services, and plans to have an artist in the front of the shop doing live painting over the coming months.

If anybody is interested in moving their business to the historic building, contact Malcolm on 01895 824393.

A SMALL but interesting group came together for the April meeting of Harefield Tenants and Residents Association's April meeting on Thursday.

The meeting began with a talk from Sue Atherton, manager of the new children's centre who gave a presentation on the sort of facilities that would be on offer, and answered questions from those who attended.

Ongoing planning issues were also discussed, including the hotly contested extensions taking place at Kylemore House in Hill End Road, and the upcoming appeal by Tesco.

Residents were also delighted to hear the news that Mount Vernon Hospital would be continuing its Cancer Treatment Centre.

Concern was also expressed at the changing of hours at Harefield Police Station, and the hot food takeaway which was recently approved by planners, in the High Street.

There were no outstanding issues to report from last week's Neighbourhood Watch meeting, apart from the recent anti-social setting off of fireworks in Moor Hall Road.