The photograph shows Stuart Tennant, Ashton & Mossley District Charity Steward, presenting an ELMC Grant of £500 to Mrs Joyce Howarth, the Chair of the Friends of Tameside Young Carers. Joyce, together with Mike Hurst, a Trustee of the Friends, and a member of Kershaw Lodge at Ashton, applied for the Grant to allow them to arrange a trip to take 70 of Tameside’s Young Carers, (all of whom are under the age of 12) to Chester Zoo.
Tameside, which is one of the smaller Metropolitan District Councils, has just under 500 Young Carers, all of whom are under the age of 18, and who care for someone who may be ill or disabled, usually a parent or sibling, and almost always someone in their own family. As such they are an almost invisible group who tend to keep their extra duties to themselves. Of that 500, about one fifth, 100 young people, are under the age of 12. Stuart said, “Ashton & Mossley District were only too happy to help this very worthy group of young people by putting them in touch with the ELMC Grant Making Committee. We are pleased to be able to make sure that this trip will now go ahead.”
Seen in the photograph are, from l to r, Stuart Tennant (District Charity Steward), Mike Hurst (Trustee), Joyce Howarth (Chair) and Peter Douthwaite, District Chairman of Ashton & Mossley Freemasons.

© Text & Photograph by Kevin Hall, District Communications Officer