At their February meeting members marked the forthcoming World Book Day by donating their superfluous books to charity.

The speaker for the evening was Renate Thome who gave a most interesting talk on Shalom House, the hospice in St. David's which offers practical care and support to Pembrokeshire people suffering life-threatening illnesses,She explained how she had been seconded from Swansea University to oversee the launch of the centre, now open for over a year, and described its aims - to help people take control of their condition, to offer additional therapies and to care for the physical and spiritual needs of each individual. She praised the untiring efforts of many peopl;e all over the county who have raised in the last ten years the large sums of money required to launch this enterprise and spoke of the hopes for ongoing expansion of what Shalom House can offer - perhaps longer opening hours and even overnight care - but stressed that the huge costs of this meant that each step forward had to be taken with caution.

Renate was thanked for giving members a glimpse of this marvellous and heart-warming place and wished all success for the future.

The next meeting will be at Newport Boat Club on Monday 9th March at 7.00pm, when the speaker will be Nica Pritchard describing the charitable work for which she was recently awarded an MBE.

Visitors and new members are always most welcome.