On wednesday June 11th we were asked to supply breakfast patisseries and coffee for the official opening of St.Loyes Foundation satellite operation based alongside the Shaw Trust centre in Llandarcy, Neath.
Sian prepared a wonderful selection of danish pastries and mini patisseries, perfect for a beakfast meeting.
St.Loyes is a charity which specialises in training disabled people and those with long term ill-health problems in preparation for work. The charity has been training disabled people on a campus in Exeter, Devon for over 70 years and has now set up a satellite operation to work alongside Shaw Trust in Neath.
Shaw trusts role in the partnership will be to source job opportunites and provide support for individuals who have undergone training. Follow this link to read the press release for the event.
The guest speaker at the event was Simon Weston. It was an absolute pleasure and inspiration to hear Simon talk. He was an excellent speaker, articulate, intelligent, funny and inspiring.
He spoke from the heart and stressed the value of self worth and self esteem. He talked about his determination to succeed once he had found a role in life. He talked about the need to recognise the individual and he praised the role of both St Loyes and the Shaw Trust in providing support to people with disabilities. He also emphasised the fact that making a person more independant had a wider impact not just for the individual but for the family and the community.
Simon made everybody laugh when he talked about his injuries and his journey home from the falklands. Having been so badly injured that the medics didn't think he would survey a plane journey home he was taken aboard a ship for the long journey back. He kicked up such a fuss that eventually it was agreed to put him on a plane. He had lost half his body weight, had septicimia and was being given blood constantly to stay alive. The plane took off and just as it was about to leave the ground - the engine fell off. At this point in the speach Simon said " I know you think my nickname is lucky".
A truly inspirational gentleman, a wonderful role model and a proud Welshman.
Sian was asked to produce a croquembouche as a Birthday and retirement cake for a gentleman who was retiring from the royal engineers. A croquembouche is a traditional French patisserie dessert made up of choux buns filled with creme patisserie. Traditionally it is held together by caramel but in this case the request was for white chocolate. Sian decorated the cake with toy soldiers and barbed wired to give the cake the look of "no mans land".
