Supporting Local and National Events
In between travel, work and photography, I try to find a portion of time to support local events and charities, as well as supporting National Charities here in the UK along with a little support overseas.
Together with this I also worked with The King’s Trust for 11.5 years as a voluntary business mentor on The Kings’s Trust Enterprise programme.
During this time (between Feb 2014 and June 2025) I provided one-to-one support, guidance, encouragement and inspiration to young people.
I’m proud to support and be a member of Matlock Town Team.
Matlock Town Team is a group of independant traders who simply want to tell you how amazing their town really is!
Made up of dedicated and hard working independent traders, the Team work hard to promote local business and their focus is to make Matlock a better place to shop.
The Team’s number one priority is to increase footfall into Matlock and they’ve been working very hard to achieve Parking incentives, while organising and promoting festivals such as Spookfest in Hall Leys Park and Christmas late opening etc. It’s all part of the plan to make Matlock more of a community, and to involve local people and businesses in the town as much as possible.
While I don’t have a business situated in the town, as a member I do assist where I can – especially with promotion and practical support during the events.
The Team also makes every effort to help each other by sharing each other’s businesses, or pointing customers to Town Team Member’s shops, bars or cafes. It’s important to note that the Team work hard to achieve all this on a zero budget, and are not supported by any external funding.
Please visit and like their Facebook page: Matlock Town Team, a website is being constructed currently and will post a link when the site is live.
I’ve also given just a little support to the Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline and hope to do so again later this year while wishing Wendy Watson, Becky Measures and all the team the best of luck in raising even more awareness for such a fantastic cause and great achievement.
Guastalla, Reggio Emelia (R.E.)
Many of the manufactures I deal with in business are based in Northern Italy, and because of this I make regular trips to the Reggio Emilia (R.E.) area to visit suppliers. Over many years of travelling through R.E. I have met many wonderful people and become friends with both suppliers and local characters in the region. One such place is a town called Guastalla, and it’s neighbour at nearby Gonzaga.
More recently we’re delighted to be associated with and promote the Societa Per La Valorizzazione Culturale e Turistica di Guastalla. The Society for the promotion of Culture and Tourism of Guastalla promotes a collaboration between government agencies and other owners for the promotion of Guatalla’s history and culture. The Society considers tourism as an inseparable connection of it’s history and tradition and I’m delighted to encourage and support them.