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Entry tags:
Cripples Help Society, Cerebral palsy, Scope
I've just fulfilled one of this year's resolutions by volunteering to help in a charity shop.
I've been on the verge several times before, but Oxfam took two volunteer forms and never got back to me, Help the Aged took my phone number and never rang. The Hospice shop would have loved me, but their shop is damp and sets off my asthma. Julia's House doesn't need any more volunteers, Age Concern is a dump and the manager is an idiot.
That's Broadstone.
So, I walked around Wimborne last Friday. The best shops by far are the Red Cross and the Victoria Hospital shop. However, I walked the other way around town, so I passed Oxfam, DEBRA and Scope first.
Scope isn't the ultimate charity shop, far from it, but there's a loose family connection, so I decided to give it a shot (and they were desperate for helpers).
Scope used to be 'Cerebral Palsy' and before that, it was the 'Cripples Help Society'. I know this mainly because when I was about ten, I had an operation on my feet and my grandmother borrowed a pair of crutches for me from them. I knew she was involved in some manner with the Society, and looking on Google I found her obituary in the British Medical Journal in 1983 (she was a doctor).
Dr Mabel Lindsey, of Bramhall, Cheshire, who formerly worked in Manchester's public health department, died suddenly on 1 March aged 86.
Mabel Hodgson was born in Dunfermline on 30 August 1896 and attended Dunfermline High School, whence she won a Carnegie
scholarship to St Andrews University, graduating in medicine in 1921. Her first appointment was as resident medical officer at the Dundee Infant Hospital, her second as house physician at the Dundee Royal Infirmary. In 1923 she took the DPH, and in 1924 she became an assistant medical officer in the maternity and child welfare department of the Manchester public health service. Although she gave up full time work on her marriage in 1930 to Gilbert Lindsey, she continued to do locums. When her home was blitzed in 1940 she returned to Dunfermline with her two children and worked there for three years as an assistant medical officer of health. They went back to Manchester in 1944, and from then until her retirement in 1956 she was again employed on a part time basis in the Manchester public health department.
Dr Lindsey's retirement was put to good use: in all she did Mabel was an enthusiast, and her enthusiasm was infectious. When she found that the Bramhall auxiliary of the Cripples Help Society was in the doldrums she became its secretary and now, over 20 years later, it is a thriving organisation. Her reward for this work was the conferment of honorary life membership of the society in 1972. She was a founder member of the Stockport business and professional women's association. Her links with her old university were maintained through the Manchester association of the St Andrews Society, of which she was president for two years. She was also a member of the Manchester Medical Society.
Mabel's greatest interest was probably the Medical Women's Federation, which she had joined as a young doctor. Secretary of the Manchester and district branch for many years and later its president, she was well known to members both at home and abroad,
having served on the council and attended many of the international meetings, through which she made a number of lifelong friends.
She will be best remembered for her monumental achievement in assembling the federation scrapbook, a unique record of the activities of medical women.
At the age of 79, while still actively engaged in these many interests, Mabel became suddenly blind. It was a tremendous blow, but she was cheerful in adversity. Hers had been a wonderful marriage, and Gilbert was a tower of strength, helping her in every way so that she was able to enjoy as near normal a life as possible. Their two children and eight grandchildren were a source of great joy, and in 1982 they had the thrill of becoming great-grandparents. It was sad that Gilbert should fall ill a few weeks before Mabel's death as his admission to hospital separated them and each was worried about the other. Originally a Baptist, Mabel was confirmed into the Anglican church in late middle life.
She and Gilbert derived great comfort from their faith.-HJC.
(The great grandchild mentioned in the obituary was my son Kelvin.)
I've been on the verge several times before, but Oxfam took two volunteer forms and never got back to me, Help the Aged took my phone number and never rang. The Hospice shop would have loved me, but their shop is damp and sets off my asthma. Julia's House doesn't need any more volunteers, Age Concern is a dump and the manager is an idiot.
That's Broadstone.
So, I walked around Wimborne last Friday. The best shops by far are the Red Cross and the Victoria Hospital shop. However, I walked the other way around town, so I passed Oxfam, DEBRA and Scope first.
Scope isn't the ultimate charity shop, far from it, but there's a loose family connection, so I decided to give it a shot (and they were desperate for helpers).
Scope used to be 'Cerebral Palsy' and before that, it was the 'Cripples Help Society'. I know this mainly because when I was about ten, I had an operation on my feet and my grandmother borrowed a pair of crutches for me from them. I knew she was involved in some manner with the Society, and looking on Google I found her obituary in the British Medical Journal in 1983 (she was a doctor).
Dr Mabel Lindsey, of Bramhall, Cheshire, who formerly worked in Manchester's public health department, died suddenly on 1 March aged 86.Mabel Hodgson was born in Dunfermline on 30 August 1896 and attended Dunfermline High School, whence she won a Carnegie
scholarship to St Andrews University, graduating in medicine in 1921. Her first appointment was as resident medical officer at the Dundee Infant Hospital, her second as house physician at the Dundee Royal Infirmary. In 1923 she took the DPH, and in 1924 she became an assistant medical officer in the maternity and child welfare department of the Manchester public health service. Although she gave up full time work on her marriage in 1930 to Gilbert Lindsey, she continued to do locums. When her home was blitzed in 1940 she returned to Dunfermline with her two children and worked there for three years as an assistant medical officer of health. They went back to Manchester in 1944, and from then until her retirement in 1956 she was again employed on a part time basis in the Manchester public health department.
Dr Lindsey's retirement was put to good use: in all she did Mabel was an enthusiast, and her enthusiasm was infectious. When she found that the Bramhall auxiliary of the Cripples Help Society was in the doldrums she became its secretary and now, over 20 years later, it is a thriving organisation. Her reward for this work was the conferment of honorary life membership of the society in 1972. She was a founder member of the Stockport business and professional women's association. Her links with her old university were maintained through the Manchester association of the St Andrews Society, of which she was president for two years. She was also a member of the Manchester Medical Society.
Mabel's greatest interest was probably the Medical Women's Federation, which she had joined as a young doctor. Secretary of the Manchester and district branch for many years and later its president, she was well known to members both at home and abroad,
having served on the council and attended many of the international meetings, through which she made a number of lifelong friends.
She will be best remembered for her monumental achievement in assembling the federation scrapbook, a unique record of the activities of medical women.
At the age of 79, while still actively engaged in these many interests, Mabel became suddenly blind. It was a tremendous blow, but she was cheerful in adversity. Hers had been a wonderful marriage, and Gilbert was a tower of strength, helping her in every way so that she was able to enjoy as near normal a life as possible. Their two children and eight grandchildren were a source of great joy, and in 1982 they had the thrill of becoming great-grandparents. It was sad that Gilbert should fall ill a few weeks before Mabel's death as his admission to hospital separated them and each was worried about the other. Originally a Baptist, Mabel was confirmed into the Anglican church in late middle life.
She and Gilbert derived great comfort from their faith.-HJC.
(The great grandchild mentioned in the obituary was my son Kelvin.)
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(Anonymous) 2010-06-08 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)Wow, I've never seen this obituary. Forwarded to some of our mutal relatives. Given that it was published when I was of an age to be influenced by female role models in scientific careers, I'm amazed no one showed it to me. Or perhaps they did and I didn't realise at the time how unusual it was.
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I think it's a wonderful thing to do, volunteering for such a place. Good for you.
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Wasn't it 'The Spastics Society' at some point?
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Two of my cousins are CP, and I was brought up to refer to their condition as CP; they're more than a decade older than me, and this was at the height of the 'Joey Deacon' craze.
As a nine year old (in 1981 - the International Year of Disabled Persons), I couldn't work out a) why the Spastic Society didn't change its name (since so many adults were careful to use CP instead, and 'spastic' had clear derogatory connotations for playground usage), b) why a number of my cousins' friends went out of their way to refer to themselves as spastics, and c) why Ian Dury's song 'Spasticus Autisticus' divided people into those that found it gratuitously offensive and those that found it empowering.
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