01/10/2024
It was a pleasure attending the "Can Do Health and Care Expo 2024", held at the Colchester Rugby Club recently, where Terry Waite talked about his experiences as a hostage, and many of the community organisations we have supported over the years received awards. It really captured the "Power of Kindness" in our area, which was the tagline for the event.
For example, groups like African Families in the UK won an award, who we awarded a grant to years ago. Many other Catalyst previous grant beneficiaries, such as RAMA were present too.
We also enjoyed speaking with Dr Ed Garratt, the chief executive of the NHS SNEE ICB - North East Essex, who provided this glowing review of the event:
"I was so proud to host in Colchester our EXPO for 1,400 local Health and Care staff and leaders. The idea is to provide an opportunity to celebrate and showcase all the amazing work that takes places in the local NHS, local authorities and voluntary and community sector. We have so much talent!
"So often we look to the negatives, so it was great to celebrate what is working well and the opportunities to go further.
The theme of the day was kindness and compassion. It was therefore very appropriate that Colchester was the venue given its compassionate city status. We are proud of Colchester! Our keynote speaker was Sir Terry Waite, who gave the most inspirational speech.
He talked about the importance of compassion not only to others but also to oneself. You cannot look after those around you if you don’t look after yourself, he said. He illustrated his points with reference to his 5 years in captivity and talked about the forgiveness he has shown to his captors.
Cllr John Spence of Essex County Council remarked afterwards that Sir Terry should be sainted, which the audience all agreed with. Sir Terry truly is a great Briton and it was wonderful to see him speaking with such energy and insight at the age of 85."
Rachel Walton, from African Families in the UK: "EXPO24 was a fantastic day for AFIUK, where we were honoured to win the Community Collaboration Award—an extremely proud moment for us. Two of our Community Ambassadors also had the privilege of attending the Compassionate Leadership Masterclass and meeting Sir Terry Waite KCMG CBE. It was an outstanding conference, full of inspiration and meaningful connections."
