May 17, 2022 | Katie Day
Wayfinder mentioned in Parliament
Menopause caught the attention of MPs thanks to the our Trustee Katie Day.
I am one of the Trustees of WayfinderWoman charity, a role I really enjoy for so many reasons, mainly the fabulous women I work with and the amazing women we meet and support.
My ‘day job’ is as a business consultant / trainer with my main area of expertise being the menopause. Together with my partner, Dr Roger Prentis, we run sessions for large corporate and public sector organisations on all things midlife. We had been trying to put on an event in Parliament for some time, however a thing called Covid-19 got in the way somewhat over the last couple of years.
Finally on April 26th this year, the event took place! It all started when, through WayfinderWoman, I got chatting with Eastbourne MP, Caroline Ansell, about the menopause. She has a keen interest in supporting women in her constituency and being of ‘menopause age’ had a personal interest too.
When the event took place in April, Caroline hosted the evening, and we were delighted that we also had Sally-Ann Hart MP for Hastings and Rye present in the audience. Maria Caulfield MP, Minister for Patient Safety and Primary Care gave a speech and stayed for the full duration of the evening, took questions and answered them. We were deeply grateful to her for her time and involvement.
It was wonderful that at the start of the evening, Caroline opened the event with a speech. In her first few sentences she described how the evening had come about and mentioned WayfinderWoman. As she said: “I heard about this half-day session on a Saturday afternoon about the menopause that a great charity in Eastbourne – WayfinderWoman – was holding. As a woman affected by this I had a personal interest, and I was also keen to hear the information so I might better support the women in Eastbourne. I was going to join at the beginning and stay for about half-an-hour (the event was three-and-a-half hours). We were moving house that weekend too. However, within minutes I was hooked and stayed for the full session, and left the packing to my husband and sons.”
The event was incredible. We had over 100 people in the committee room with some amazing speakers including two Professors of gynaecology, a senior official from the NHS and an HR Director from the private sector. I was delighted to be able to share my story and the work we are doing with people and organisations.
It was wonderful to have two volunteers from WayfinderWoman in the audience, Sue Clarke and Michelle Merrilees, for both of them it was their first visit to Parliament and they really enjoyed the experience. Hopefully we will be able to do more events like this and involve more of the fabulous women from WayfinderWoman.
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