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receive special consideration from other road users and from road and traffic authorities. We
also recognise that old people require special education in road safety. During the year all our
seven " Darby and Joan " Clubs have had talks on the subject kindly given by the Hampstead
Road Safety Officer. We distributed 500 road safety maps, and followed this up early in 1954 by
distributing over 1,000 of the excellent leaflets entitled " Get Home Safely." To our great
satisfaction the St. Marylebone Road Safety Committee now includes a representative of the
Association in the person of our Chairman, Mrs. Fewster.
The Regular Services.—Behind all these special interests and activities, the regular services have
gone on steadily.
The "Darby and Joan" Clubs continue to bring pleasure, interest and friendship to their
500 members ; and only those who run them know how much work they entail. As well as their
Coronation treats they all had summer outings and Christmas parties, largely financed by the
members themselves.
Both Luncheon Clubs continue. We report this with great pleasure because at the end of
the year, when the St. Marylebone Housing Association and Trust gave up " The Cookshop,"
there was a danger that its old people's section might have to close. Fortunately, its new proprietor
was willing to continue the old people's luncheon club on a non-profit-making basis, sponsored by
the Housing Association. This made it possible for the Borough Council to recommend it for a
continued subsidy from the London County Council.
"Meals on Wheels."—The Women's Voluntary Services run this scheme so well, thanks to the
admirable relations they have established with the London County Council restaurant which
supplies the meals, that the anxiety it caused the Association in the early days has largely been
forgotten. The main concern remaining was the van, a 1937 model which will at some stage have
to be replaced. Now, thanks to our Flag Day, £250 is safely deposited in the Post Office Savings
Bank as the nucleus of a replacement fund.
Chiropody.—The demands on both branches of this service increased so much during the year
that by October it became clear that an extra session at the foot clinic and an extra monthly
round of the home service must be provided. It was decided to apply to the Borough Council
for an increase of £75 in their grant for the financial year beginning in April, 1954, but to start
the extra facilities at once, financing them for the first six months from the proceeds of the Flag
Day. The application to the Council was, we are happy to report, successful. In the home
service the third round per month started in November. There have been twenty-eight new
patients this year. The total number of treatments was 280 : one patient received free treatments;
two paid a reduced fee ; the rest paid the 2s. we ask. Mrs. Simmonds, a volunteer driver of the
St. Marylebone Red Cross, continues to provide transport for the chiropodists, the only cost to
the Association being 5d. a mile for petrol, etc. Since October the clinic has held four sessions
a week, i.e., two chiropodists both working morning and afternoon. There were 127 new patients
during the year and in all 1,418 treatments were given. The charge of 1s. 6d. is cheerfully paid
by the patients. Miss Cotsford, the Red Cross Associate who does the bookings, and the rota of
Red Cross members who attend to help, all deserve our grateful thanks. We are fortunate in the
excellent premises we are able to rent from the London County Council at a nominal charge.
Visiting.—The basis of all our endeavour is personal friendliness towards individual old people.
We feel, therefore, that our voluntary home visitors to the infirm are a very special embodiment
of that general sympathy for the old which our Association exists to express in practical ways.
We had twenty visitors at the end of the year. There were also the sixteen from the parishes of
All Souls and St. Peter's, Vere Street, whose representative attends our visitors' meetings as
well as being a member of the Executive Committee. We have a similar liaison with the visiting
done by the Red Cross and, of course, with the seven-days-a-week service of the Borough Public
Health Department in the person of Miss Sharp. In May we established a very useful working
arrangement with the Divisional Health Office of the London County Council by virtue of which
one of the sisters of the school medical service helps in the visiting of old people. She may visit
those suffering from any physical defect, keeping them under observation until only social visits
are needed. This same sister also visits any old people in St. Marylebone referred to the County
Council by hospital almoners and reports on them to us as well as to her own service. She attends
our visitors' meetings, and also represents the County Council senior nursing officer for the
division on our Executive Committee.
During the year we were given by the Personal Service League four more pairs of sheets
to lend in cases of emergency, and obtained the loan of four more wireless sets from the Wireless
for the Bedridden Society. Miss Sharp kept all the fifteen sets for which we are responsible under
regular supervision.