Day Opportunities had a virtual ‘takeover’ session earlier this week, when our member Jack taught us how to make delicious rock cakes!

If you’re a Day Opportunities member at home, why not join our virtual sessions? From animal care to signing, karaoke and cookery, they’re lots of fun and a way to spend time with your friends. Call 01257 472 900 to find out how. 

In the meantime, if you fancy making Jack’s recipe at home, here it is: 

Rock Cakes

Rock cakes are a light, crumbly tea-time favourite. Eat while they are still warm from the oven.

Cooking time: 10 to 30 mins
Makes 12

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour
75g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
150g dried fruit or currants
1 medium egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line a baking tray.
2. Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the dried fruit or currants.
3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg and milk together with the vanilla extract.
4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you need it to make the mixture stick together.
5. Place golf ball-sized spoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking.
6. Bake for 15–20 minutes, until golden-brown. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.

In line with government instruction, our sites are currently only open to members who are cared for by critical workers, or who are classed as vulnerable.

The new variant of COVID-19 is accelerating the rate of infection across the UK. We want to help keep every member of our community safe, which means that unless absolutely essential, we must all stay at home.

Thank you

We’d like to say a big thank you for your continued support as we work hard to do all that we can to support our members, students, their families and the wider community.

Following guidelines

We continue to closely follow government guidelines, with all staff wearing face masks on site. Additional measures include social distancing and stringent cleaning processes, with regular hand washing.

Track and Trace forms

We have minimised all but essential visitors to our sites, who are required to fill in Track and Trace forms.

We will keep the data provided for 21 days as part of the Track and Trace requirements and it will all be stored and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.  We will provide NHS Test and Trace with this data, should we be asked to do so.

This will help NHS Test and Trace to contain any potential clusters or outbreaks, crucial to reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Our services

With regard to our services, we continue to make decisions based on instruction from the government and the local authority, as well as considering the specific needs of each individual concerned.

My Life Support

Thanks to their ongoing commitment, My Life Support staff are working with all our families to keep support within people’s homes, regardless of the current situation.

My Life Learning and Day Opportunities

Following risk assessments with member and learner’s families, only people who are cared for by critical workers, or who are classed as vulnerable may currently attend My Life Learning and Day Opportunities.

Those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, or who have members of their households who fall into this category, have been asked to remain at home.  

Advocacy

We are continuing to support people through our Advocacy service, although face to face meetings are not possible at the moment.

The Stable Door Café

We have made the decision to close The Stable Door Café to the public for the lockdown period, to help reduce non-essential visitors to our site.

Looking to the future…

We are hoping that our staff will receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of this year, which will enable us to reassess the current situation.

Here at My Life we’re doing all we can to support you. If you need more help or information, please call us on 01257 472 900.

We may be apart at the moment, but we know that we will be ‘better together’ before long.

The My Life Team

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your excellent and very valued contribution this year to our very special organisation My Life. This year has not been what any one of us could have possibly imagined in our wildest dreams. It has been challenging whilst giving us all the opportunity to focus on what is really important, to perhaps slow down a little and to reflect on what matters to each and every one of us.

As a charity we have been extremely productive keeping the My Life Support aspect of the charity  working well and managing each situation, as it occurred, equally we have ensured both our sites at Standish and Leigh have remained open for those that have wanted to attend. We have produced over 1000 sets of PPE gowns for the hospital, delivered numerous hampers and kept the horticulture going with over 650 hanging baskets sold!

We are not sure if any of you remember, now we are scraping the frost off our cars, that we had such a beautiful warm spring into summer. This enabled us to do so much groundwork at the Standish site, making the site as accessible as possible, which has continued into the winter months. We have needed to make various adjustments to the site including in the last few weeks as avian flu has hit the UK, so we have needed to protect all birds and poultry by keeping them away from wild birds – we all know how this feels!

We are hoping that much of this work will be completed before the Christmas period so when we all return after the festive period we can start to look forward to the delights of spring and the site  looking in tip top condition.

In terms of keeping the charity afloat, of course like many other businesses and organisations we have taken a hit and have had to work so very hard to keep the organisation going, including continuing to adjust in light of the evolving pandemic. In the new year we will need to build the charity back up and all of our efforts need to be put into bringing the charity back into a good position before end March 2020. We are confident together we can achieve this and that we will continue to flourish and help as many people from our community as much as possible.

Thank you to each and every one of you for continuing to support the charity, it really is appreciated. Please do enjoy your Christmas and New Year and take the time to rest and recover, as this quiet end to the year is unlikely to ever happen again in our lifetime so enjoy.

Wishing you a peaceful and happy Christmas and we look forward to an exciting and wonderful 2021.

With love and best wishes,

Caroline Tomlinson (CEO) and The Board of Trustees

Our members have used money they raised doing yucky bush tucker trials and dancing, to put together shoe boxes full of items for local children in need.

After undertaking gruelling, scary and frankly rather disgusting bush tucker trials, as well as the more preferable dressing up and dancing, Day Opportunities members and My Life Learning learners raised enough money to buy items to give to local children and teenagers as gifts for Christmas.

After we all beautifully wrapped the gifts, they were picked up by Jess Higginson, who works for Lancashire Children’s Social Services.

We’re very proud of all of our members and learners, who have reminded us what Christmas is REALLY about!

We’d also like to say a big thank you to Rosie Tomlinson, daughter of our CEO Caroline, who is a children and young people’s social worker in Lancashire and helped us to arrange all of this.

Please note, our member in the photo below is exempt from wearing a mask.

Forget that cardboard-like pastry and slightly too chewy round the edges mincemeat, you can now make mince pies like a pro, with this easy recipe from Head Chef of our Stable Door Café, Paul Plumbley!

Paul says: “Here’s some festive fruity treats from The Stable Door! Happy Christmas everyone – from all of us, stay safe and eat well.”

Recipe

Pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 100g butter, cubed
• 1 large beaten egg

Filling and topping

• 180g mincemeat (about 12 tsp)
• 150g unsalted butter
• 150g plain flour
• 30g cornflour
• 30g icing sugar, plus extra to dust at the end

Method

1. Put all the pastry ingredients in a food processor and pulse together until a dough starts to form.
2. Tip the mixture onto your work surface and bring it together with your hands to form a soft dough.
3. Wrap in cling film and put the dough in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
4. For the Viennese topping, beat the butter until it’s very soft and starting to cream, add the cornflour, flour and icing sugar until you have a smooth paste. Then pop it in a pipping bag with a large star nozzle.
5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface, roll this as thinly as you can, then cut circles out to fit the size of the mince pie tin you are using. This will usually make 12 small pies. Lightly grease the pie tin and gently place the circles in the tin and gently mould into the holes.
6. Fill each pie with 1 tsp of mincemeat, then pipe a neat swirl on top of each pie.
7. Chill again for another 30 minutes.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 165c then bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown.
9. Dust with the remaining icing sugar.
10. Eat!

My Life Support recently worked with a number of different organisations, including the NHS and Merseycare, to help our new member, Kieran, move out of residential accommodation into his own home.

This was by no means an easy process, but we’re delighted to say that this has been a success. Kieran is now settling in and the Multi-Disciplinary Team who achieved this, including My Life, have won an NHS Team of the Month award in recognition of their hard work.

As Kieran’s dad Grant says: “Kieran can get on with his life now…it really feels like we’ve taken massive steps with My Life.”

Seeing Kieran enjoying his newfound freedom and some Equine Therapy at My Life is the icing on the cake!

To find out how My Life Support can help you, call 01257 472 900 or email info@my-life.org.uk.