Stroud Rotary Club is proud to announce its recent sponsorship of a lease vehicle for Stonehouse-based national cancer support charity Hope for Tomorrow, helping ensure vital cancer care can reach patients closer to home.
A grant of £3,744 from the Rotary Club of Stroud will cover twelve months of lease costs for a pool car used by the charity’s mobile cancer care units. These mobile units travel across Gloucestershire and beyond, delivering lifesaving treatments to patients in more convenient and accessible locations, reducing the need for long hospital journeys.
Hope for Tomorrow expressed deep gratitude to the Rotary Club of Stroud, stating: “The sponsored vehicle will enable medical teams to travel efficiently between unit locations and patient appointments, helping the charity continue its mission to bring cancer treatment closer to home.
“Your generous support will make a real difference to patients across Gloucestershire and the UK. Your funding allows us to keep reaching those who need us most, bringing comfort, care, and expert treatment to their communities.”
Stroud Rotary Club remains committed to supporting charities and organisations in the local area and is proud to back the work of Hope for Tomorrow.
For more information about the work of Hope for Tomorrow, visit www.hopefortomorrow.org.uk.
Rodborough Common Butterfly Walk
By Mathew Page
2024 was one of the worst years on record for UK butterflies. 51 of 59 species reduced in number, part of a sustained decline since the census began, half a century ago.
Despite these alarming statistics, Rodborough Common is famed for success in butterfly conservation, thanks to the National Trust reintroducing the Large Blue, extinct in the UK since 1979.
I walked across the plateau of the common on one of the hottest afternoons of the year. An Atlantic gust squeezed up the valley, forcing the hawthorns into excited flapping.
Clinging to the briars, in the lee of the Fort’s wall, I watched half a dozen of the perfectly named Meadow Browns gorging on the flowers destined to fatten into blackberries.
The grass effervesced with a medley of Skylark song, the birds invisible on their nests. A handful of Swifts patrolled the Woodchester valley scooping up the insects that rose on thermals.
The common’s flowers were unaffected by the wind, pyramidal orchids enlivening the rusting grass with their vivid pink.
On the east side of the hill I found things a little more serene. Along the road from the ice-cream factory Marbled Whites flitted their domino colours into the air before I could point a camera near them.
Above Walls Quarry, House Martins made back and forth, hunting tiny prey for their expectant young.
Amongst a low patch of scrub I struggled to identify the alarm call of a songbird. I watched for a while to see a Dunnock darting out of the centre of the bush, then hurtling back a second later with anxious urgency. The chirping presumably emanated from a brood of chicks impatiently shouting for their lunch.
I’d hoped to see a Duke of Burgundy but hadn’t been altogether confident in what to look for. When something orange dashed past me on Swells Hill, I scanned its course with my binoculars before concluding it was likely a small tortoiseshell.
The National Trust have designated a Butterfly Walk around the common to help novices like me. With wildlife in peril, we are fortunate to have such a rare ecosystem nearby. The question we leave with, is what we do to support the scaling up of the conservation success we are privileged to enjoy.
Slade Wood community buyout – final push!
The campaign to secure six acres of Stroud woodland for community access and thriving nature has almost hit its final target. Thanks to a fantastic and generous response our fundraising has reached £54,000, just £12,000 short of our goal.
This is an exciting opportunity to co-own the lovely Slade Wood at the end of Summer Street, Stroud as part of an established community woodland group. By buying £600 or £1200 worth of shares you can bring this wood into community ownership and be part of its future.
The current owners are keen to sell to a community group but there is a risk that they will put it on the open market if we can’t raise the funds. Then Slade Wood could be lost as a community resource and the opportunity to enhance the environment in joined up ways would be gone.
So massive thanks to everyone who has already invested and now is the time to buy one of the final 20 shares available – or make a donation.
As a co-owner of Slade Wood you would become a member of Stroud Woodland Co-op, who already own and manage another community wood in Stroud, just across the Slad Valley.
Meet us, see Slade Wood and find out more: We are having a drop-in gathering in Slade Wood on 7pm Wednesday 16th July. All welcome.
We’ll be at the flat area at the east end of the wood: https://maps.app.goo.gl/x7VSN7HG7Eb9pmAPA
Walk up through the recreation area next to 8 Summer Crescent. Follow signs to turn left along the track at the back of the houses, then take a right up the path through the wood. People will be there to guide you! If you need to park, please do so sensitively on Summer St.
Find out more and buy shares: https://stroudwoods.org.uk/sladewood/
