Our Second meet up of the month was a meal in our regular haunt of the Coulsdon Manor Hotel.

Our guest speaker Richard Dean, who you may recognise as a regular face of or the Beer-o-de-change at the Caterham Beer Festivals, but professionally he is the face of Caterham Accountants  Tax4Today.  [He’s a trusted pair of hands for anyones financial affairs].

Richard spoke of his involvement the Purley branch of HCPT giving local kids with any variety of special needs or difficult family situations, a holiday to Lourdes, whilst also giving the kids families some respite.

The take-away message for the 25 Tablers there, was that the experience of being away from their routine home environment in a group really does change the lives of these young people.  Richard also spoke of the rewarding experience the volunteer carers have by being involved and why they volunteer year on year.

The charity needs £750 for each place, usually asking only for a very small donation form the parents (who may be in crisis anyway), the rest being raised through various fundraising efforts.

Richard spoke of the experience the volunteer Carers, who take the kids  and cover their own costs.

In a heartbeat the Round Table voted to release £750 form their Charitable Trust, to cover one place for a local child for 2018.   We also decided that if a volunteer carer is unable to fund themselves that they come speak to the Caterham Round Table to see if we can help further.

Another good night of beer food with the lads and being part of a decision to help out a local family and change their lives for the better.