Portsmouth Business Exchange holds networking event raising over £4,500 for local dementia charity

Portsmouth Business Networking Event organiser Penny Pilmoor, along with business owners Phil Mundy, Patricia Wakeford, Chris Handley, Lincoln Noel, Gayle Tong and Fiona Heath presented a cheque to Luke Knight of Dementia Support for £4521. Photos By Alex Shute

On Wednesday, the Portsmouth Business Exchange held an event at the Village Hotel in Northarbour to commemorate the good work that the company has achieved during the pandemic.

Portsmouth Business Exchange (PBE) is a not-for-profit organisation and networking group which has been running for over 15 years, raising money for local charities and helping businesses to grow.

The event saw guest speakers from Checkatrade founder Kevin Byrne and Charlotte Carter, founder of the luxury and sustainable Carter Bags.

Local business owners came together for the Portsmouth Business Networking Event at The Village hotel in Cosham, which also aimed to raise money for Dementia Support. Luke Knight was in attendance from Dementia Support to explain more about the Charity. Photos By Alex Shute

Penny Plimmer became chairperson of the PBE at the beginning of the pandemic and met Dianne Gill, fundraising manager at Dementia Support in Tangmere, at the end of 2019 and PBE has been working with the charity for the last 18 months.

She said: ‘We like to choose a local charity as national ones tend to get more help and support. Historically PBE has always supported a charity, changing each year, this year we felt we wanted to support Dementia Support.’

Penny was ‘very pleased’ with how the event had gone and the ‘great’ guest speakers.

PBE have previously supported other local charities such as the Rainbow Centre in Fareham and Music Fusion in Havant, both youth centred charities.

Long-time member of the PBE, Phil Mundy, said: ‘Penny’s taken the reins of PBE over the Covid period, and kept it going online in a way that not many people could have done.’

‘The event’s been brilliant, everybody’s obviously desperate to talk to each other. Charities have always been dead centre of everything we do, doing business is secondary and doing good comes first,’ he added.

Founded by a group of local business owners, Portsmouth Business Exchange has continued to expand and over the pandemic, offering virtual socials as well as an online business library for its members.

Luke Knight, manager at Dementia Support, attended the event and said : ‘They’ve been great over the pandemic, they ran online virtual socials and when they could, they’ve come from Portsmouth over to Chichester to spend time at the charity to see what we do.’

‘Their donation has meant that when the charity had to close down and not see people, it’s enabled us to still run valuable services to support families, friends, carers and people living with dementia,’ added Luke.

To find out more or become a member of PBE visit https://www.portsmouthbusinessexchange.co.uk/.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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