Speakers Database

BOPAG and it's member groups across Buckinghamshire welcome contact from services, providers and individuals who would like to give talks aimed at older people. 

Our recent speakers have been :

Stephanie Moffat – Bucks Council Public Health Team (July 20^th, 2022)

Stephanie Moffat is the ‘Programme Lead’ within the Public Health team at Bucks Council working on various projects which support healthy ageing, address health inequalities, and promote community centred approaches to health and wellbeing.

Stephanie would like to talk to the group about a new initiative – the Healthy Ageing Collaborative – and to hear the group’s views about the current issues for older people in Bucks that the Collaborative might be able to address.

Maddy Howe - Repair Café (March 18^th 2022)

Maddy Howe was invited to join the Wycombe Environment group of the High Wycombe Community Board in 2021 and at her first meeting was asked to start up a Repair Cafe in High Wycombe! 

Prior to this she worked for the then County Council in the Communities Team and took early retirement in 2016 since when she has been part of a variety of community organisations including Citizens Advice, Heart of Bucks community foundation, Marsh and Micklefield Big Local (a lottery programme in east Wycombe), and Wycombe Sound Community Radio initially as a presenter and now also a director.

Grahem Keal  (21st January 2022)

Ex-showbiz journalist Graham Keal interviewed literally thousands of celebrities in nearly 35 years of TV columns and interviews, Terry Wogan included. He has entertained scores of Ladies’ Luncheon Clubs, Rotary Charter nights, WI gatherings, U3As and professional groups. Graham has written for every kind of publication from popular TV magazines such as TV Choice and TV Times to The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Express, plus many other national and regional newspapers and woman’s magazines including My Weekly and Best.

 Shila Odedra-Silvera - Making Marlow Dementia Friendly (November 2021)

Shila gave a fascinating talk about Dementia and how it is possible to live well if you, or someone you know, is suffering from the disease. Shila gave us an insight of how to see the signs of Dementia, safeguarding for the future, and how to live positively with it so that you see the person before you see the disease and wanted to put our minds at ease that it is not just memory loss that leads to Dementia and how we can bring the stigma down that is attached to the sufferers.

Jane Gatfield – Sing Your Pain Away (Aug 18, 2021)

Jane is the founder of “Sing Your Pain Away” – community group singing classes in Buckinghamshire and the Home Counties. The classes and events that Sing Your Pain Away is all about singing for wellbeing, health and fun. No singing experience is necessary, and the focus is on maximising the health and wellbeing aspects of group singing, an activity which has been shown to have as many health benefits as yoga!

All classes last an hour and the cost is £30/month for in-person classes or £20/month for Zoom classes. A free trial session is available for BOPAG Hoot readers! Pre-booking is essential.

Medical Detection Dogs (May 2021)

Baiju McCubbins gave us a very informed and fascinating speech about how and why the charity was formed and gave us an insight to how the incredible canines are trained to detect various illnesses within humans and how they alert sufferers of Diabetes type 1 to deficiencies in sugar levels. Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to detect the odour of human disease with the aim of developing faster, more efficient, and less invasive diagnostics that lead to better patient outcomes.

This amazing charity depends on donations, so if you enjoyed the talk, please show your support, if you can, by way of donation. For any individuals who would like to donate, please use the link below, which also enables them to take advantage of the uplift with Gift Aid. https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/donations/donate-2/

Friends Against Scams (April 2021)

Mark Bartlett from Friends Against Scams who gave a thorough talk on scams and frauds which was very enlightening and thought provoking and full of great advice. He informed us what to look out for to avoid being caught out by criminals that aim to take our money and personal data.

If any of the attendees would like a certificate from Friends Against Scams, contact Paula; paulawatts.bopag@btinternet.com and all we need is the name you’d like to appear on the certificate and Mark can create them and email them over. Or he can print them out on card for those who’d like a physical copy and send them directly to the person if they provide their address.

They also have a Scam Alert newsletter that can be signed up to here: www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/scam-alert

Buckinghamshire Coaching Inns (February 2021) Speaker Julian Hunt. 

Julian gave an enlightening and fascinating talk about the various coaching Inns around the area. He provided slides and information giving fun and sometimes alarming facts about the operation of these Inns and the people who ran them. We learnt a great deal about the various sites and had some laughs along the way. Everyone enjoyed listening and we had a few questions at the end which Julian addressed with enthusiasm for us all. Thanks to Julian and his wealth of information on the subject.

Click on the name of YOUR District below to bring up the range of activities and services that are available to you in YOUR area. For county wide services please go to our Support section.

Aylesbury Vale

Chiltern

South Bucks

Wycombe