Tag Archives: 107.8fm

Unlocking the power of reading

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Not one but two guests on Girls Around Town this weekend – and for a change, they’re both men!!

On the phone to the studio, Ian Merrill and Graham Keal will be talking about the work done by Shannon Trust, a national charity that supports thousands of prisoners across the UK every year, transforming their lives by unlocking the power of reading.

First up at 10.20am it’s Ian, the charity’s chief executive since October 2020, who will be telling June when and why the charity was set up and explaining the ways in which it achieves its aims.

Then just after 11.20am it’s the turn of Newark-based Graham, one of the trust’s volunteers, who’ll be describing just what his own role involves.

Some 50 per cent of people that end up in prison either can’t read or struggle to do so, meaning their life chances are limited from the word go.

With the help of its volunteers, Shannon Trust inspires and trains prisoners who can read – known as mentors – to teach those who can’t so they’re better set up for a positive future.

For them, learning to read is so much more than just stories – it will completely transform their lives, giving them the ability to engage in life-changing opportunities through education and training and, equally importantly, helping them maintain relationships with their families and friends, which reduces rates of re-offending.

Make sure you’re tuned to 107.8FM or listening online throughout the show this Sunday to hear what Ian and Graham have to say…

And find out how Shannon Trust’s Turning Pages reading programme, created by literacy specialists, has been used by over 6,000 adult learners since its launch in June 2015…

Have a heart

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Did you hear Phil talking to Lucy Millard a couple of weeks ago about a major new fundraising campaign that’s just been launched by one of the best known – and best loved – charities based here in Newark?

If you missed it, don’t worry – her colleague Katherine Wright will be on the phone next weekend, this time to June on Girls Around Town, explaining just how you can keep Beaumond House in your heart…

As part of the campaign, Kat and the team will be working hard over the coming months to fill the hospice garden with little blue hearts.

Made by potter Karen Chesney of Norwell, they’ll be mounted on steel stems and put on display in the garden. Each heart will carry the name of the loved one being remembered, just like the one in the picture of four-year old Evie above, dedicated to the hospice’s former director John Oldham.

Their aim is to have 1,000 hearts in the garden by the autumn, after which they can be collected by the donors to keep, and the first orders have already started to arrive.

Make sure you’re tuned to 107.8FM or listening online from just after 11.10am next Sunday to find out how the campaign will help Beaumond House continue to care for more than 550 patients and their families every year…

And how you can support them in their work if you have a heart dedicated to the memory of someone special in your life.

Photograph by Claire Andrews, Little Posy Photography

Returning to the office well

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A few more top tips for you on Girls Around Town on Sunday…

And this time it’s the familiar voice of Rosalyn Palmer you’ll be listening to – and learning from!

Wellbeing guru and therapist Ros will be back on air in the second hour of the show, sharing a few ways to make easing yourself back into the office a little bit less difficult, after so many months spent running your own business or working for someone else’s from home.

Based on a recent article written for the Hays website, those top tips of hers – there are five of them in all – are designed to make getting back to ‘normal’ as stress-free as possible, suggesting what you should be doing and, just as importantly, what you shouldn’t!

“As human beings, wired by the primeval part of our brains for survival, we have a negativity bias that keeps us on high alert for what is wrong (or a threat) and we seek comfort in what is familiar,” says Ros.

“Over the last year we, as an adaptive species, have made the unfamiliar (lockdown and working from home for many) familiar. So now, the reverse is true and what was once commonplace will feel strange and possibly a threat.”

Make sure you put on your Sunday best this weekend to hear what Ros has to say when she’s on the phone to June from 11.10am…

Just tune in to 107.8FM, listen online or head over to the free Radio Newark apps and join them both to find out how her words of wisdom can help you return to the office well!