Eighteen years ago Debbie Thrower began training to be a Reader (or licensed lay minister) in the Church of England. In the same training cohort, was Mark Ward, who on Saturday (23 January 2021) was in conversation with Debbie for Hampshire's Avon Valley Churches, (that's the parishes of Fordingbridge – with Sandleheath and Godshill – Hyde, Breamore, and Hale & Woodgreen)
It is more than a decade since the form of support for older people that is now Anna Chaplaincy began in another part of the county – the market town and surrounding villages of Alton, in Hampshire. Debbie then joined BRF in 2014 as the charity undertook to develop the concept nationally.
Debbie described how her own parents' experiences of growing old has informed her work with people in their later years and how she came to move from full time broadcasting to developing this specialist chaplaincy for older people and carers that's now spreading rapidly across the UK.
Mark Ward works for the Trussell Trust and its network of food banks providing emergency food to people in crisis. You may listen in to their chat in 'The Saturday Conversation' here.
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