How it all began - Aylsham Care Trust - 'Linking together people in need with helpers

Aylsham Care Trust was founded in 1985 by Rees Coghlan, who remained Chairman until the beginning of 2006. Then a pharmacist with four outlets in and around Aylsham, Rees became aware of the need to help those who were terminally ill to remain in their own homes. Although a commonplace sentiment today, this was a relatively forward thinking approach in the 1980s and something which Rees felt was his calling as a Christian.

Rees organised a meeting in Aylsham Town Hall which was attended by around 60 local people. It was agreed to set up a charity using local volunteers with nursing experience to support the services provided by the health authority and social services. Along with Rees, the initial trustees were Dr Paul James, Geoffrey Loynes and Valerie Ching.

The need for volunteer drivers to enable people to attend the luncheon club resulted in the purchase of ACT’s first minibus to supplement the car drivers.

Gradually the need for help for the terminally ill diminished and, with more and more volunteers coming forward, ACT concentrated on the regular activities such as the luncheon clubs, social outings, shopping trips and so on which have become such an important part of life for the older people in the town and surrounding villages.

Rees’s dedication, hard work and caring attitude remains undiminished and in 2002 he was awarded an MBE ‘for services to the Aylsham Care Trust in Norfolk’. The charity itself was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Award in 2003 ‘for strengthening the community through the development and co-ordination of voluntary care services and social activity’.