Rowans Hospice: Meet one of Portsmouth’s oldest fundraisers Joan Eddings - and she isn’t slowing down any time soon

Born in London in 1922, Joan Eddings has always been caring for and helping others. She became a state registered nurse as well as a qualified health visitor in 1944 at the age of 22, working a long and fulfilling career in the health sector. After marrying Michael, a doctor, in 1949, the couple moved to Old Portsmouth to work and live by the coast in order to continue their love of sailing on their Portsmouth-built boat, Spice Islander.

Alongside working as a nurse and raising the four children, Nicky, Sam, Penny and George, Joan has kept busy by dedicating many years of her life to helping others and supporting her community through a variety of initiatives in and around Portsmouth.

Joan said that working as a nurse and being a doctor’s wife inspired her to want to help people and make a difference. When asked why she was so passionate about helping others, Joan says: ‘Being the doctor’s wife and working as a nurse could be part of it. It’s so important for people to meet each other. We tend to live in little isolated capsules, and it’s not good. So I think it’s been good for lots of people who otherwise would have been very isolated.’

Joan is the founder of the Old Portsmouth Cathedral lunch club, which is an initiative that started more than 30 years ago as a way for more vulnerable members of the community to meet new people and socialise over a hot meal. Joan and her team of volunteers provide home cooked meals, including Joan’s speciality dish, cottage pie.

The impact of the lunch club was so great – among Joan’s other endeavours – that it led to her receiving an MBE in 2013 for services to the community, although it became a running joke that Joan received the honour for her cottage pie.

Joan was accompanied by her two friends, Rosamund Watson and Maureen Cole, and her daughter Nicky Pendleton to Windsor Castle, where she was presented the honour by Princess Anne.

Recalling the day, Joan said: ‘The presentation itself was in the Waterloo Room, surrounded by portraits of the people who fought in the Battle of Waterloo. It was presented by Princess Anne, who was very charming indeed, and she asked me in a very received pronunciation accent “and what do you do in your spare time?” I said I didn’t have much spare time but I liked to play Rummikub and Mahjong.’

In addition to her MBE, Joan was also selected to receive Maundy Money from Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the city in 1998, and most recently was put forward for a civic award which she received at the mayor-making ceremony earlier this year at Portsmouth Guildhall from newly appointed Lord Mayor, cllr Hugh Mason.

Joan was one of the founders, first to be trained and would later became the president of Help in Bereavement, a Portsmouth-based organisation set up in 1979 offering free visiting services supporting people in the city and surrounding areas who have lost loved ones.

Joan celebrated her milestone 100th birthday in January with a lunch at the Royal Naval Club after being mentioned in despatches at Old Portsmouth Cathedral. The party was attended by a host of friends and family who all enjoyed celebrating the vast range of achievements and experiences from Joan’s first 100 years.

Her friend Terry Halloran, who was inspired by the number of guests at her party and the amount of lives she had touched, thought about collecting Joan’s stories and experiences to put into a book, initially just for friends and family to enjoy.

Only later did Joan suggest selling the booklets with the proceeds, totalling £420, being donated to Rowans Hospice.

Terry, who knows Joan through being one of her lunch club volunteers, says: ‘Joan plays down her many achievements but she thought if people were interested in reading her life story that they may wish to make a donation to the charity.’

The book includes memories and anecdotes collected from Joan and her family from meetings across a number of months, ranging from Joan’s life as a nurse before the invention of scrubs, sneaking into cinema screenings with strangers, and her travel adventures with Michael and the family which saw her visit New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, France and Ireland amongst others, with a number of summers spent sailing around the Mediterranean.

Faced with the challenge of condensing 100 years of memories into a 30 page booklet, Terry admitted that some editing had to take place, particularly with Joan’s enjoyment of telling ‘the occasional risqué joke’. Accompanied by images to illustrate the memories, the biographical piece shares snapshots of Joan’s life told through her own recollections, also allowing her much-loved personality to shine through.

Joan’s affiliation with Rowans Hospice dates back to the founding of the charity in the early 1990s. The Lady Mayoress at the time knew of Joan as a great fundraiser from her work with the Girl Guides, and asked if she would be willing to get on board and help with fundraising for the Portsmouth Area Hospice, as it was formerly known. Unable to turn down an opportunity to help, Joan became a committed fundraiser for the hospice, and volunteered serving breakfast and lunch to patients as a bedside assistant.

She said it was wonderful to be back at the hospice to present her latest donation, and to see how much it had changed and grown over the years since she worked there. ‘The early days were my favourite, when it first began.’ Joan adds. ‘There was so much camaraderie, with everybody doing things together. The achievement was very satisfying for everybody.’

Previous to the booklet donation, one of Joan’s most recent contributions was fundraising for a stained glass window which beautifully reflects the sunlight in the hospice’s ‘quiet room’, a place where patients can relax and enjoy the calming atmosphere.

For Joan’s return to Rowans, she was greeted by CEO Ruth White, the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress, and given a tour around the premises where she used to volunteer. As part of the tour, Joan was shown the ‘quiet room’ and the stained glass window that her previous fundraising contributed towards.

Then Joan presented Ruth and the charity with the cheque for £420, from the proceeds of the booklet. After selling out of the first batch, the family hopes to print more copies that will be available from Rowans in exchange for donations.

Ruth was thrilled to welcome Joan back to Rowans. She says: ‘I’ve had the privilege of knowing Joan since I was appointed to work for Rowans Hospice charity in 1994, Joan was an avid fundraiser and as a former nurse wanted to be part of the Portsmouth area hospice, now known as Rowans. Through fundraising, Joan and the Friends of the charity raised funds for the beautiful stained glass window in the quiet room.’

Joan’s daughter Nicky, the eldest of her four children, says she is so proud of everything her mother has achieved and continues to achieve, by not letting her age stop her. She adds: ‘She’s just amazing, she’s still going strong, still living in her own flat. She’s still entertaining and partying on.’