Celebrations have been in full swing at Tyspane Care Centre as one of its residents reaches her centenary in style. Kathleen Spencer was joined by staff, relatives, friends and other residents as she received a telegram from the Queen in recognition of her landmark birthday. A champagne reception was held at the home and guests enjoyed a special birthday cake organized by volunteer Josie Davie. Kathleen was born Kathleen Readman in Whitby, Yorkshire on the 17th June 1922, one of six children, she had two sisters, Hilda and Margaret and three brothers, Frank, Ernie and Donald, although very sadly, Kathleen is now the last of the siblings. During the war years, Kathleen joined the Royal Air Force as a radio Operator, she used to talk to the pilots and help navigate them back to ground. On the 27th of September 1952, at the age of 30 years, Kathleen married her sweetheart, Austin Spencer at St Hilda’s Church in Whitby. Kathleen and Austin had one son named David and a granddaughter, Danielle who lives in New Zealand. The Birthday girl, said: “I am overjoyed to see friends and family on this special day”.

Residents have been waiting with great excitement to celebrate the Jubilee of our longest reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth 2nd, marking her 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. On Friday Residents were up early to join in with St Pauls Cathedral broadcast, joining the rest of the world for this momentous occasion. Head chef and her team whipped up a tasty selection of freshly-baked biscuits, pastries and cakes for the occasion, all washed down with pots of tea. Residents and staff came together to create some Great British art pieces of our own, eat your heart out William Turner! Our beloved Queen enjoys all things equine and Tyspane residents were treated to a visit from some gentle donkeys, slower than the Queens Race horses but just as beautiful. Festivities continued well into the weekend, families came to celebrate and enjoyed musical entertainment by talented singer Dave Clinch.

A look into a life!

Here at Tyspane care centre we feel it is important to celebrate our resident’s life achievements and take a trip down memory lane.

Today we will be sharing Tonys story, enjoy!

Hi, my name is Anthony John Edward Proverbs, preferred name being Tony.

I was born in West Bromich, I am the eldest of two children. I was born with cerebral palsy (Hemiplegia) which affected the whole left side of my body, as a child I was in hospital for a considerable amount of time, to get a proper diagnosis, as they thought I was just lazy.

After being discharged from hospital my dad would spend hours playing with me and persevered to help me with my condition; he told me I would only learn if I did things my own way and adjust it for my own means, my dad taught me how to kick a football and how to adapt my kicking, and he also got me to skip on the spot, as I used to fall over due to my poor balance.

I attended mainstream school but was always left watching on the side or sitting in a sand pit. Unfortunately I was subjected to bullying because of my condition, this lead to me finishing my school days at a boarding school where I gained strength in both my theory and physical needs.

In my later years I moved to Devon and found a great interest in athletics and enrolled in the Exeter and East Devon Sports Association for people with disabilities.

I trained with the Exeter Harriets, it was here I learnt how to Javelin, Shot Put and throw Discus.

I succeeded in making the county champion and international champion in all three disciplines. Following my success I was fortunate to be able to coach these sports to able bodied individuals as well as people with disabilities.

I am proud to say that during my time in active sports I was short listed for the Paralympics four times.

In 1990 I was nominated for a Heart Of Gold award from Esther Rantzen by an able bodied 13 year old girl, she felt that I deserved to be acknowledged for my achievements and establishing a phenomenal training ethic with able bodied people and people with disabilities providing them with new leases of life.

When I collected my award I had the pleasure of meeting Fatima Whitbread, who was an Olympic champion in the sports of my interest.  In the year 2002, I was nominated to carry the touch for the commonwealth games in Manchester which I did with pride, it was one of the greatest honours of my life.

I am now in my seventies and reside at Tyspane care centre in Braunton, North Devon. Here at Tyspane I am fortunate to have an in house physiotherapy team who work with me often. They are a marvellous team and I feel privileged to work with them.

They have encouraged me in every which way after not being able to stand for three years, I am now able to stand and support myself in the parelle bars, I am able to transfer from A to B and also I am able to use a Motomed machine, this enables me to work both my upper and lower limbs.

The physio team here also make sure that my wheelchair is maintained to the highest standard which allows me to be able to manoeuvre myself providing me to remain as independent as possible. I am always ready and willing to participate in new physio programmes and challenges.

We were delighted to join Blooming Haus’s Christmas Wreath Making Masterclass, where Master Florist, Michal and his business partner - Michael showed us the best method to create beautiful festive wreaths.

Following the tips and ideas learnt during the amazing virtual experience, we will be happy to put our skills to a test and to enter the  Barchester Christmas Wreaths Competition.

We also enjoyed a live event with English National Ballet Associate Dance Artist, Richard Bermange, who led a creative dance workshop for our residents followed by a short clip of Akram Khan’s work Dust, premiered in 2014 as part of ENB’s Lest We Forget programme, commemorating the First World War.

An ENB Company Dancer, recalled their account of performing in the piece and provided context to the themes. To bring this element to a close, some of the specific hand movements from the duet were demonstrated by Jennie Harrington - Artistic Coordinator.

Our residents had a wonderful time as they listened, danced and were able to singalong to famous war time music performed by ENB Associate Musician, Matt Hartley-Stevens.

The session incorporated the national two minute’s silence at 11am to mark the exact time the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War in 1918.

We had a lovely time joining Chef, Alex Connell, from Vegetarian for Life for a Halloween-inspired virtual cooking demo.

Alex demonstrated how to prepare a few themed dishes, such as root vegetable tagine, roasted butternut squash mac-n-cheese, chocolate pots with piped biscuits and flapjacks.

Our residents were delighted to be a part of this lovely virtual culinary session by tasting the vegetarian dishes from the comfort of our home.