News from the Princes Centre

Published: 05 January 2026

A Happy New Year to you all. 2025 was a year of change for the Princes Centre. With the retirement of our General Manager Kim, the trustees changed the structure of the management of the Centres. There have been staff upgrades and our new Day Centre Managers, here and in Bourne End, have brought fresh ideas. Our Finance Officer Julia, has had her role extended and is now our Business Manager. The Friday community bingo sessions will now take place fortnightly.

Our Jinglers performed once again in St Mary’s Church with their Christmas Jumper debut and entertained everyone with their singing. Our MP Greg Smith, and our Mayor and Chairman Matt Walsh, attended their performance. It was a great success and enjoyed by all. £154.50p was raised in donations from the audience.

The run up to Christmas was an exciting time for our clients who enjoyed making wreaths, Christmas decorations, and calendars in the craft sessions. During the week before Christmas the clients were treated to Christmas lunch and there was music every day with the Kelybilly Stomp Duo, Sally Blossum [a wonderful singer], the Black Dog Band, and the Hemley Hill Billies who rounded off the week. Some of the more mobile clients enthusiastically danced to the music. Some of the staff dressed up as elves and helped to provide the Christmas atmosphere and one member of staff transformed herself into a snowman and entertained the younger clients with her dancing and singing. There were mince pie workshops all week so everyone who wished had a chance to learn how to cook mince pies and to enjoy eating them afterwards. There were plenty of other activities too with various games, dancing and entertainment.

Other news:

We held our first car boot sale recently. The event was a great success raising £345.63 with around 100 visitors through our doors. One of our trustees, along with 19 other helpers, organised a collection for the centre outside Tescos and raised almost £900 once Gift Aid is included. In addition, the Bird in Hand pub kindly selected us as their chosen charity for their Christmas Carol event and the Risborough Santa Run also generously collected donations for us. Jo, one of our staff also organised a Christmas raffle.

If you would like to consider having a relative or yourself attending the Centre, a free taster of what we have to offer can be arranged. Please contact Mags on 01844 345105 or Marina on 01628 527024 for our Bourne End Centre.