If you had have told me that I would address over fifty community minded attendees of an Ovarian Cancer fundraising luncheon two years ago I would have fallen over backwards.

Well on Tuesday 18^th February 2020 in Coleraine I was honored to be asked  just that, yes to talk at the annual luncheon which Coleraine Lions Club organize in memory of my mother, Jenny Povey who lost her battle with ovarian cancer in  2015.

I was approached in early January by a member of the Lions Club to see if I would be guest speaker at the luncheon and for some reason I said yes before asking what they wanted me to talk about. Fortunately, they did not ask me to talk about my mother’s journey nor cancer as I would have really struggled, they simple said: “You choose the topic”.

The start of my address was around community spirit and volunteerism, this then lead into domestic violence, focusing mainly on family violence as well as violence against women. My closing subject was social connection. The talk went for about 10 minutes and I feel it went well by the tears that I see in my family’s eyes.  When I was leaving, I was asked by Coleraine RSL Sub Branch to be their guest speaker at the Dawn Service in April, so either they are desperate for a speaker, or maybe Leadership Great South Coast has made me a better person.

Without the skills, knowledge, confidence and empowerment that Leadership Great South Coast gave me in 2019, I don’t think that I would have been capable of engaging this audience.

I sincerely thank you all – Andrew Povey