The RG10 Podcast - featuring the people, places and events of interest across our area of the Thames Valley

A couple of years ago Gordon Holmes was a man on a mission: to engage the local community in addressing the prevalence of single use plastics, with the aim of reducing litter and the harmful effect on the environment and wildlife. Gordon talks about TRIP - Twyford Rethinks Its Plastic, whose work has led to Twyford being awarded Plastic Free Community status in early 2021 by marine conservation ch...

How will you mark Valentine’s Day this year? You’d be forgiven for feeling a bit ‘blah’ and unmotivated due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic… Luckily you came up trumps when we asked you to have a think and share some suggestions with other RG10 followers! So here’s a special episode of the podcast dedicated to celebrating love in lockdown. Support a local pre-school and catering business by ta...

For those fortunate enough to be in a relationship, what are you planning (or hoping for) to mark Valentine’s Day this year? After close to a year living under the coronavirus pandemic, most partnerships have been tested but often also strengthened. Enduring love is an amazing thing, well worth celebrating! For those not in a couple – whether awesome alone or single and seeking – do you have in mi...

Sam Bramwell became a bit of a local hero during 2020. In December, Twyford Parish Council named her Citizen of the Year. She’s a busy person, so we’re delighted to have her join the RG10 Podcast. Sam talks about her motivation for founding the Twyford Covid-19 Support Group, the scale and scope of the volunteer response to help vulnerable people, and how the needs have changed between the first l...

Alison Hesketh is the founder and director of TimeFinders Senior Life Specialists, offering practical and emotional support for older people and their families as they adjust to changing circumstances. And we all know how much of that there’s been in 2020… TimeFinders was launched in the RG10 area but now covers all of the Thames Valley and central southern England. In this episode Alison explains...

Small businesses have had a lot to contend with during the Covid-19 pandemic. Help is at hand from Mitali Kelly, a Finance and Business Consultant based near Reading. She talks about the importance of having a plan, however uncertain things seem, understanding your current cash position, continuing to spend on marketing but targeting it more carefully, delivering online services and the use of the...

Sometimes if you have a good idea, you just need to run with it and others will join you in support. This is what happened earlier this year for Rebecca Howard, whose desire to improve the environment by planting trees in her local community won the backing of Twyford Parish Council and quickly gained momentum with local residents and businesses. Within a few weeks her crowdfunding campaign attrac...

Charities need support from the business community now more than ever, with fundraising events hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. And businesses need ways to demonstrate their values, ethics and social responsibility to consumers in a competitive marketplace. Connect Charity is an organisation based in Berkshire that facilitates partnerships between charities and businesses – you could say it a...

Paul and Melissa Johnson are co-directors of Home Instead Senior Care Maidenhead, Henley & Wallingford. Based in Ruscombe, Home Instead offer care assistance enabling older people to continue living independently in their own home. Having worked in the city for most of his working life, for several years Paul had specifically wanted to run and develop a high quality care business in the local...

Dean Cooper has a long association with Twyford’s youth football club, Twyford Comets, established in 1972. So much so that he was named Sports Personality of the Year in the 2018 Twyford Together Community Awards. He talks about the history of the club, some of its past players, how it came to have an annual exchange with a club in the Netherlands, and how girls have become key to its future. www...

This episode is being released just in time for World Mental Health Day, 10 October, so it’s appropriate that our guest is someone making a positive difference in our area to people struggling with their mental health. RG10 resident Abby Lacey talks to us about Mental Health Mates (Reading), the walking group she set up in the spring of 2019, and how this led her to launch the 1 in 4 Mental Health...

*NOTE: Henley Literary Festival ticket giveaway competition in RG10 magazine (ends 20th September 2020): bit.ly/2DQ4iIaWhether you love a literary festival or have never been to one, this year offers the perfect opportunity to engage with a stellar cast of writers and celebrity interviewers from the comfort of your own home. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions on public gatherings, the 2020 Henley L...

Joanne is a qualified engineer turned nutritional therapist and yoga teacher who loves working with sporty people in and around Berkshire. Her clients benefit from her scientific mind and holistic approach in order to achieve optimum health and peak performance. Joanne works with individuals and companies offering personalised programmes for sports nutrition, digestive health, brain health and emp...

Henley Festival is normally one of the highlights of the summer social calendar – a five-day black tie celebration of music and arts, held on the banks of the River Thames. After Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 event, it was the job of artistic director Stewart Collins to rebook all the acts for the following year. The good news is that all the same artists have been confirmed in the...

Liz Balmford is a Twyford-based performance coach working with business people to improve their leadership communications and confidence to achieve self-belief and results. Whilst there are many coaches out there, Liz is able to combine a business background in marketing communications with her qualification as an EFT practitioner (Emotional Freedom Technique/Tapping) to offer a unique blend of ac...

In this episode we are joined by Sarah Brazenor, a learning coach and founder of Connective Learning, based in Maidenhead. She specialises in working with GCSE students to help them understand their own unique learning style in order to achieve their full potential. Sarah cites dyslexia and confidence issues among reasons that some students might struggle with our results-focused education system....

A previous contributor of many ‘nature notes’ articles for RG10 magazine, Niki McCann is the Education Officer for Waltham Place in White Waltham. This historic farming estate has been in the Oppenheimer family (of De Beers fame) for three generations. Niki talks us through their principles of working in harmony with nature through biodynamic farming methods. Her own role involves educating visito...

Who dedicates themselves to helping people live well with dementia? Shirley Pearce founded the Twyford-based charity Understanding Dementia to do just that. She joins us to explain about her work changing the culture around dementia care by training carers and health professionals to better understand what may be the reasons behind a person’s anxiety or behaviour, leading to more successful intera...

This episode features Jennie Gow, BBC's F1 presenter and perhaps The Piggott School's most famous ex- pupil. In this interview she talks about life in the pit lane, an embarrassing moment with a Hollywood movie star, and her childhood in RG10.Although the F1 season has been put on hold because of the Covid- 19 pandemic, it will return in the first weekend of July and Jennie will be back...

We’re joined this time by Rob Yeadon, who finds time alongside his day job as a financial adviser with Benedict Charles Financial Planning to head up Twyford Together, the not-for-profit volunteer organisation behind many of the key initiatives and events in the Twyford community. Rob talks about the close collaboration that exists between Twyford Together, Twyford Parish Council and the Twyford C...

We catch up with Heidi Strickland-Clark, founder of Wokingham-based outdoor group fitness company FastTrack Fit Camp and frequent contributor to RG10 magazine. The business marked its 10th anniversary last year by converting to a social enterprise supporting local environmental projects, and Heidi is celebrating a milestone birthday of her own this week. Heidi talks us through the rapid conversion...

Initially cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions on movement, the 15th annual Henley Arts Trail is now going ahead online. Members of the public can gain an insight into the work and lives of participating artists via the Virtual Henley Arts Trail. A steady stream of images, videos and studio tours of the 36 venues is being shared on the Henley Arts Trail Facebook and Instagram pages from late...