Support group is to close after 41 years
JON MACPHERSON
AN organisation set up to give a social outlet to arthritis sufferers is set to close after 41 years.
Hyndburn Arthritis Club officials said there are not enough volunteers willing to take on key committee roles to keep the group going.
More than 40 members met every month at the Poplar Working Men’s Club in Accrington. However they now preparing for their final farewell get together at the annual Christmas party later this month.
Chairman Peter Hopwood, who has been involved with the club for 30 years, was one of six committee members to retire last month and said the closure of the club is ‘very sad’.
He said: “You can’t get people to take these roles on. Of course the members themselves are all in their 80s.
“The Christmas party will be the final event unless a number of people come along and say ‘we will run it for you’. However, I just can’t see that happening.”
Irene Barnes, 87, from Oswaldtwistle, has been a committee member since joining in 1978 and also retired from the roles of treasurer and secretary in November.
She said: “We normally get around 40 people but when I joined we used to have over 150. You find over the years that people are retiring earlier, they are retiring healthier and they don’t want to join an arthritis group. It’s just modern life so you struggle to get members now.
“I will be very sad to see it close. It’s a shame but it’s one of those things.”
Irene said the closure coincides with wider changes in the Arthritis Care charity that could have impacted upon the club.
She said: “In a way it’s come at the right time because from November 1 Arthritis Care has merged with Arthritis Research and become Arthritis Research UK. We would have to do a lot of changes and within the branches they aren’t taking on any new members from the beginning of next year. We weren’t sure what was happening so it’s fallen at the right time.”
Club president Peter Britcliffe said it will be a ‘sorely missed organisation’. He said: “They have done some extremely valuable work over the years ensuring that people often crippled by this disease are able to have a social life. Sadly there seems to be b fewer f and df fewer people l these days coming forward as volunteers and when stalwarts like Irene and Peter retire very often there is no-one to fill their places.”