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<p class='T8'>The Times April 2008</p>
<p class='T8'>Friends Hit the £1 m &nbsp; &nbsp; landmark</p>
<p class="T8">By Rachel Doherty rachel_doherty@mm.co.uk</p>
<p class="T8">THE League of Friends at Warwick Hospital has passed the £1 million landmark in fundraising since it was established in 1953.</p>
<p class="T5">The main fundraiser has been the bric-a-brac shop and book shop which together have raised £12,000 this year.
<br />The remainder of the fundraising comes from street collections, tea and cake sales, car-boot sales, .summer. raffle and donations from the public.
<br />A total of £72,850 raised has bought essential equipment for the hospital which the NHS cannot provide.
<br />Roy Joyner, chairman of the league of friends, said: "One of the most successful
    treatments we have funded is the breast-imaging unit, which cost £80,000."
<br />The league has 60 volunteers out of the 220 volunteers serving Warwick Hospital. They have a ward-visiting scheme in which the volunteers perform light duties such as chatting to patients and helping them fill out their menu or make drinks.
<br />Roy added: "I would like to give huge thanks to JiIl Denny and Trevor Wills for their expert handling of the finances and Sharon Elswood, co-ordinator and secretary for her hard work."
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    <p class="T8">
        Courier 30th May 2007 
    </p>
    <p class='T8'>Poor and housing top new mayor's wish list</p>
<p class='T5'>Aiding the town's poor and increasing affordable housing will be top priorities for new Warwick mayor Martyn Ashford.
<br />The Labour town councillor will use his year to increase awareness of those issues, as well as raising money for chosen charities, the <b>Warwick Hospital League of Friends</b> and the Meningitis Trust.
<br />As a 53-year-old who spent his early years crammed into tenement housing in Birmingham, and later a concerned friend to a mother whose daughter was diagnosed with meningitis almost too late, the new mayor will have plenty of experience to draw on in his work.
<br />But one of his first jobs was to deflect criticism that he is not currently a town resident.
<br />He described his residence at Styles Close, north Leamington, as "temporary", within the two miles required by the Electoral Commission and due to change during his time in the role.
<br />"My wife was born and bred in Warwick and the family live there," he said.
<br />Expressing delight at a "huge honour", the former RAF fitter added: "It's a big achievement for someone like me, who comes from quite a humble working class background.
<br />All my priorities are community-based, helping the more needy in society such as the elderly and those who are less well-off.
<br />"So often that starts with housing, and I am keen to see more genuinely affordable accommodation.
<br />I will also try to get around as many charities working in the town and schools as possible during the year."
<br />Coun Ashford's appointment did much to ease the "great disappointment" of losing his Warwick North district council seat at the recent elections by just three votes, a result he attributed to "the Blair factor" and successful Conservative campaigning on the possibility of cuts at Warwick Hospital.
<br />Raised in Balsall Heath and Northfield in Birmingham, and later in Droitwich, Worcestershire, Coun Ashford studied as a commercial vehicle fitter and transferred his skills into the RAF, spending 12 years at bases around Europe.
<br />His family moved to Leamington during his absence, and, on leaving the services in 1984, Mr Ashford met his "Warwick through-and-through" wife Angela, with whom he has a 23-year-old daughter.
<br />A lack of housing in rural areas while later living in Long Itchington prompted his interest in politics, and he was elected to represent the village on Stratford District Council in 1993.
<br />He lost by another narrow margin - 35 votes - in 1999, moving back to Warwick in 2003 and winning places on both town and district councils the same year.
<br />He succeeds outgoing mayor Coun Misan McFarland.
<br />Conservative town and district councillor Anne Mellor (Warwick South) will be the new deputy mayor.</p>
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