Meet the Mancunian – 7.9– Fiona Spencer Transcript

Intro

Hello, and a warm Mancunian welcome to you today. I'm Deepa Thomas Sutcliffe, your host, and it's an honour to share Season 7 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, social impact stories from Manchester with you. This season is all about celebrating the stories of our local changemakers and the profound social impact they are creating.

Every Tuesday, I shine a spotlight on the incredible individuals weaving the fabric of our community. From grassroots heroes to local legends, their stories are the soul of Manchester.

Whether you're tuning in on Apple, Spotify, Google or www.meetthemancunian.co.uk, get ready for a season that showcases the incredible social impact within our community.

Welcome to the 8th episode of Season 7 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester.

Passionate about supporting women and girls, we hear from Fiona Spencer, Vice President, Soroptimist, in this episode.

This episode is being released ahead of International Women's Day, 8th March 2024. International Women's Day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Each year, this day serves as a powerful reminder of the progress made towards gender equality and highlights the work that still needs to be done. In 2024, the theme Inspire Inclusion emphasises the importance of diversity and empowerment in all aspects of society.

Introduction and Guest Background

[00:01:43] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm delighted to introduce my guest, Fiona Spencer, Vice President, Soroptimist.

Thank you so much, Fiona, for taking the time today.

[00:01:51] Fiona Spencer: It's lovely to meet you too, Deepa.

[00:01:54] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: You're in lovely Lake District, which is so beautiful. And it's great that you were able to take a few minutes for us.

[00:02:00] Fiona Spencer: It's a pleasure. It's nice to be able to escape from Manchester, but Manchester's been my adopted home for the last 25 years, so I enjoy being in the city too.

[00:02:12] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely. It's a lovely city.

Fiona's Passion for Supporting Women and Children

[00:02:15] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Before we talk about Soroptimist, you could talk a little bit about your passion for supporting women and children, where did that come from?

[00:02:17] Fiona Spencer: As you'll see when we talk about Soroptomists, that really embodies my interest in supporting women and children, but I guess I've also done that in my career. I'm retired now, but I was an ophthalmologist, so an eye surgeon, and I've always had a particular interest in training and education within that and held national roles in that.

That's been an opportunity to support lots of people in training. But of course, when I started there were very few women surgeons, even in eye surgery. It's been lovely to be able to nurture and develop people so that nowadays about 50 percent of those going into eye surgery are women. That's always very encouraging now.

[00:03:10] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That is a wonderful statistic. One out of every two eye surgeons are women. Amazing. And like you said, that's come from a time when it wasn't so high and there were less role models.

Introduction to Soroptomist International

[00:03:23] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How did you get involved with Soroptomist and tell us what it does?

[00:03:27] Fiona Spencer: Soroptomist International is actually a huge global movement that works to transform the lives and status of women and children. I think internationally, there are something like 66,000 members, and that's over what are now known as 5 federations.

We've got the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, we've also got Africa, and we belong to a federation that's Great Britain and Ireland, and also has some of the Commonwealth within it, or islands in the Caribbean.

It gives you an opportunity to do things, on a local, a national and an international level. So, I'm a member of the Manchester club, but you asked me how I got into it. And that was when I was a trainee in Glasgow. I moved cities a lot in my training.

And one of the wonderful things was it allowed me to meet business and professional women, because that's who are the Soroptimists, in different cities. Women doing different things, not just in medicine. And that was a blessing. And also, they were trying to put something back into the community. that's something I've always wanted to do. Both things tied together, and I was there for a Soroptimist in Glasgow, and then later in Nottingham, before moving here to Manchester in 1998.

Local Initiatives and Projects in Manchester

[00:04:54] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Tell us a little more about what Soroptimist is focused on specifically perhaps in the Greater Manchester Circle.

[00:05:02] Fiona Spencer: Overall, if I say to you that Soroptomists have been around for a hundred years and their view is about empowering women, enabling them and educating them and girls to reach their full potential. And because of that, depending on where we are, we get involved in different things.

For example, in Manchester, we have a number of local areas that we've been involved in. So perhaps Women Matter would be one of them. Women Matter is for women who have come into contact with the criminal justice system. And it's a service in Manchester where they get support advocacy and counselling, there's opportunities to help them get to interviews.

And we started by providing them with little pocket diaries, which doesn't sound very much, but makes a difference because for these women they may not have phones, they may have no way of keeping a diary, they'd have lots of appointments. They might have parole, they might have going to the Women Matter House, they may have appointments for interviews or whatever. At least they can put all of those together in one place.

Every year, we provide the Manchester group with a number of pocket diaries that we've collected for them. But we've also helped collect clothing, toiletries, things that will help them be prepared for an interview, for a job situation. And also craft items and other things that may be used really to give them more to do and help them feel better about themselves. So that's a local charity. None of those big items. A very small thing still makes a significant difference to an individual.

And perhaps along those lines, one of the other groups that we've been supporting are MASH. That's Manchester Action on Street Health, and that's a charity that gives advice and support to women who are working in the sex industry in Manchester. They have a night-time mobile van that goes out as well, and we've supported them with again, quite practical little things. Sanitary products, flipflops, sun cream, underwear, umbrellas, quite practical things. Luckily, we know that these women are also offered opportunities for showering and for laundry at Cornerstones.

And Cornerstones is another charity that previously in our club we've supported too, providing things for their kitchen for them. So again, they link up with each other. In a way, what we're trying to do is help some of the women in Manchester who are the most disadvantaged. end of the spectrum.

You'll see that theme's going to carry on with the other ones that I'll mention because we've also been involved with the Pankhurst Trust. Of course, the Pankhurst Centre and Manchester Women's Aid are tied together, and they provide vital services and refuge for women from domestic violence.

And we've done some quite simple things again, every year, we have an event where we pack a lot of brand-new mugs up with tea, coffee, chocolate sachets and biscuits, wrap it all up in cellophane. It's a sort of hug in a mug. It's something new as they arrive somewhere just to say this is the first thing for you of your own. And it's from us.

We've also involved in providing sewing machines for the five refuges in Manchester. So that involved some volunteering and fundraising. My son and daughter doing their Duke of Edinburgh schemes ran an afternoon tea with me, for example, to raise money towards that. And we've also had members of the Soroptomists who are fantastic at sewing, going along and teaching some of those skills to the ladies. So, empowering them to feel perhaps better about themselves, to learn a new skill, and maybe even starting them on something that's going to be practical for them in the future, to make their own clothes. Or even to consider as a job or a role. So that's been really nice. So again, you can see that we're tending to do maybe small, but very practical things.

[00:09:36] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much because like you said, I think small things matter as well. You're finding the most vulnerable people and looking at ways to make their life better, especially like that hug in a mug. That sounded really very nice.

And I can imagine anybody would feel very good to feel, to get one a little bit of human connection and the thought behind it, and a lot of very practical things about helping people with their jobs, or helping people keep people safe, so that's really good to know.

Challenges and Call for Volunteers

[00:10:10] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What are the challenges you face on this journey, because obviously Soroptomist is trying to do a lot of good things, but I'm sure there's also some you've had to overcome.

[00:10:20] Fiona Spencer: Of course. And I think Deepa, one of the problems for most people nowadays in our society is finding time to spend on something other than their families and work. And even in a big city like Manchester, it's often hard for us to find enough members who are free to get involved in different projects.

But I guess the good thing is because we have a range of those projects, different people can find an interest or get involved in different ones without having to be involved in everything we do.

But we're always keen to have new members, of course. And so, if there are any of your listeners who are professional or businesswomen who would like to perhaps pay something back, even in a small way, and get to meet like-minded women, we'd be delighted to hear from them. Because I think that's always the challenge, to keep ourselves going and have enough time to do it. We've probably got far more ideas, things we'd like to do than we can actually achieve.

[00:11:28] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I can totally understand that and good shout out to volunteers who might be interested from professional women women background. You've talked a little bit about the people that you help and support. Maybe tell me a little bit about the impact you've made.

Impact of Soroptomist's Work

[00:11:43] Fiona Spencer: Just before Christmas we support Emmeline's pantry as well, which of course is a fresh produce pantry, as opposed to a food bank. And at Christmas time, donate warm pyjamas or dressing gowns. And a couple of us were able to go along for the day and help give out the fruit and vegetables, the cakes, the bread, the toys they collect, and the warm pyjamas to people.

So that was really a nice opportunity to actually get a chance to see, that people who were receiving them were obviously encouraged and felt cared for. And so, we know that makes a difference.

Each year, couple of our members have always been involved in something like that, and we'll also take them Easter eggs at Easter. We get a lot of positive feedback for the donations, the clothing, the things that we've taken. I think we know that it makes a difference.

But it's also about the opportunity for us to do service together that actually feels so nice. that gives us a positive impact too. And I would say that because in Soroptimist, we have so many kind of areas that we're involved in.

And we're involved in thinking about climate and the planet as well. Things we've done locally where we challenged ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint for all the members in the club. Think about how we would do that. We plant trees. One of the hundred year anniversaries of Soroptomist International Great Britain and Ireland was planting trees for a brilliant future. So each year we've been planting a tree as well. And I think that's also. made us feel that we're doing things over a wider scale. It's not just supporting individual local charities. I think

International Projects and Initiatives

[00:13:42] Fiona Spencer: We also have international or national projects that we get involved with perhaps someone that was always close to my heart was a project in Orissa in India. And I met Eliza Rose who started a hospital really because his parents had been lepers. He started a small hospital to treat leprosy. 20 plus years ago.

We sent off cleanly washed tights that were not of use anymore to use as bandages. As they were much more effective than many other things as a bandage. And that grew to a connection individually with this little hospital where we know every single thing we do goes directly to them.

Again, close to my heart, having been an eye surgeon, we've paid for a number of cataract surgeries. to happen there as they have that happening regularly. They had children with disability from polio, for example, they'd make their own callipers and wheelchairs, but they'd also teach them how to make them so that they would have a job in the future.

They also have a great program for their midwifery. and this goes on into the little villages and the mountains. We've had one of our retired, very senior members visiting them, and she, in fact, helped donate for a windmill for them. It's been rather wonderful because we've had this connection over time.

We built a house and school room for orphaned children as well with AIDS, a few years ago. And that felt very positive because in that hospital, we connected up some older people without families and some children, without families. We heard at the time, really, fantastically positive stories about how it felt like they were like grandparents and grandchildren who'd come together.

So there've been a number of individual heart-warming stories and we also support a couple of girls who's going into nursing for them. So that feels like a very direct connection where we get newsletters and direct feedback about the person we're supporting. We know that none of the money we're raising for that is going to a middle organisation, it's going directly to the individual.

[00:16:12] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Now, that does sound like you made a lot of impact over many years. It's great that there's so many facets that you're supporting from people with disabilities, polio affected, somebody who's had leprosy, eye surgery, cataract, the school. I love the orphanage or, like you said, it's not an orphanage, but a home for grandparents and grand and grandchildren to come together and connecting people who are without family. I think that is so lovely. Does sound like there's a lot of impact Soroptimist is making through its work here, as well as the community projects you support. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:16:52] Fiona Spencer: At the moment we're doing things with Lending With Care, which is where we're actually giving a very small starter sum of money to individuals through the Lending With Care website. And that's them to start a new job or expand something they were doing. And then they pay that money back very slowly.

And for us in the UK, it's very small amounts of money, but for them it can be life changing. And as they pay it back, we can then use that money again for the next person. And so that could be wonderfully all over the world. So projects in Africa, the Caribbean or the Far East can also be supported in quite a small but personal way. More of those individual or heart-warming stories about people who are not in the UK. Perhaps, but we're doing, I like to think, similar things for people locally too, through the other charities that we're supporting.

[00:17:55] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And I think collaboration is the name of the game as well, right? Bringing your resources together with another charity helps them extend their work and you extend your impact.

[00:18:05] Fiona Spencer: I think partnerships really important. Another charity that we've been looking at doing some work for is Early Essentials, which is based in Manchester and provides Moses baskets for with absolutely nothing, who are going to need it, when the new baby on the way,

Within these beautiful Moses baskets, they put together with blankets and booties and sleep suits and toiletries that are needed and so on. We've been able to put in some knitted hats because we also collect some hats for the little hospital in Orissa in India because it's cold there in the winter. And some of them are quite small so they'll go for these lovely new-born babies up to three months.

And then I've been enjoying my retirement doing quilting and patchwork with a group called the Village Stitchers in Heal Green, and I've been given knitted blankets by some of them, and some of the quilts from the Linus Quilt Project as well to give them to put in the Moses baskets. And that's lovely because as more people hear about what they could give to that or make for that then I can become a conduit between different groups of people. And I think lots of the Soroptimist find themselves doing that, actually being able to connect people together, and it makes a big difference.

[00:19:29] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think it does, it's that whole power of community, isn't it? It's bringing people together for a common purpose. And that is very powerful.

[00:19:39] Fiona Spencer: Yes, and I think, sometimes we don't know how we can do something. We don't know what we could do with the little time we have or the skills we have. And it's great to be able to find a way to, to bring that out from people so that they can feel positive too.

[00:19:55] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely.

How to Get Involved with Soroptomist

[00:19:57] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How can interested people reach out to you and learn more? You talked about people coming in as volunteers, but maybe they want to support in other ways. How do they find you on the internet and how do they find you on social media?

[00:20:10] Fiona Spencer: You can easily look up the website for Soroptomist International to find out more about it. And if you go into our federation for Great Britain and Ireland, which is SIGBI, S I G B I, you can also go in to find a local club.

And you can pick Manchester. You can email us at sigbi, so that's s i g b i dot Manchester at gmail dot com. And on there, you'll also find details of the charities and the organisations we're supporting.

Deepa, we meet once a month the first Tuesday of the month. And, at various times, either because we're working away or because some of our members can't come out in the dark in the winter, we also always have an opportunity for a connection via Zoom so that members can still work remotely.

[00:21:09] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that and I'll make sure to include the website in my show notes so that people can find it easily. That is convenient on the days you don't want to travel or public transports not available. I think it's a really convenient way to volunteer still.

What advice would you have for people looking to start a similar movement in their local community? How should they start?

[00:21:35] Fiona Spencer: Deepa, if there's somewhere where there are Soroptomist clubs near them, they would be able to join one. So looking on the website, they'd find out where that was. But also, of course, new clubs are chartered every year. In fact, the whole Federation of Africa within Soroptomist International was only chartered in 2020. There are many new clubs in different countries. And they've come about by professional and business women coming together who are like minded, talking to each other about what matters to them, then looking for a way in which they could take that forward.

I think sometimes the auspices of something like Soroptimist helps. In fact, some clubs have been chartered in the UK only as remote communication clubs. They don't meet physically. There are all sorts of opportunities, and I would say Soroptimism is growing hugely in places like Africa. I'm hoping that it will reach lots more people in the future.

Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

[00:22:41] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that, Fiona. An opportunity now for you to talk about anything I haven't asked you about, anything coming up in the next few months. I know you are soon changing roles within Soroptomist as well, if you want to talk about that.

[00:22:54] Fiona Spencer: I will take over as president elect in the club this year, in March and then the following year become president of the club. But within our club, we also have other roles that we do because we need to keep our accounts. We have a treasurer, we have a secretary, We organise at our meetings also to have really interesting speakers who tell us more about local charities or organizations we might want to work with or support. So again, we'll be looking at how we can organise that and who we can get involved with in the future. So that's probably what's coming up for us locally. And for me personally, within Soroptimism

[00:23:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: All the very best for your new roles, and I'm sure you will continue to lead Soroptomist to continue its very good work, and I'm sure take it in different directions. Making a difference all the time.

[00:23:49] Fiona Spencer: Thank you, Deepa.

Signature Questions

[00:23:51] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm now going to move to the signature questions I ask all my guests. And the first one is, could you describe the Mancunian spirit in a word or a phrase?

[00:24:01] Fiona Spencer: I would say that the Mancunian spirit is optimism and determination, and that Mancunians are friendly and extrovert generally. And that's how I found the city. and the people I work with in it.

[00:24:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think those are all great ways to describe the Mancunian spirit.

Can you share a Mancunian who inspires you and tell us why?

[00:24:30] Fiona Spencer: One of the people who inspired me hugely as I became a Soroptimist, is somebody who also, like me, was an adoptive Mancunian, coming into the city. And I met her at Soroptimist, but only afterwards realized that she had indeed been the business manager at the eye hospital long before I started, and later a female chief executive of a hospital. So that was Rosemary Knights, who's now Rosemary Stephen.

And I think that embodiment of being able to lead and show other people what women can do within the city. it Is very important. But of course, another Mancunian that I would have to tell you that I was very inspired by is a bit more historical, and that would be Emmeline Pankhurst. And I think lots of people would say so. And as you can tell from some of our Soroptimist ventures, we have Emma’s Pantry, we have followed up with the Pankhurst Centre with the women's refugees and the kind of work that has been done in the Pankhurst name since.

[00:25:47] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I smiled because many of our guests talk about Emmeline Pankhurst, but she's had such a huge influence on women in the UK and women, of course, in Manchester as well, have been a wonderful role model and it's great that so many good works continues to be done in her name. And I also like the shout out to Rosemary and being a bit of a trailblazer there. So that's really good.

What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

[00:26:14] Fiona Spencer: I think that the people that surround you, and the work you can do with them is the most important lesson. Whether that's in your hobby, in your work, in your career, or perhaps in voluntary work you're doing, by working with people and helping encourage them to want to make a difference too.

I think makes you more interested in what you're doing and being interested in it keeps you going. I think you need that feeling that you are creating a difference, a small one, in everything you do. But actually, that's much easier do if you are in an environment where other people feel the same.

And you feel like you've got a common purpose to do, and I think I was lucky because when I worked in healthcare, I think that is the pervasive feeling that you are trying to do something different and positive for each person you're seeing. And I also feel that kind of runs through what I do in Soroptimist. And I think it keeps you happy.

[00:27:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think that's a really good life lesson, and you're so right. If you have people who are driven by that same common purpose, you can support each other, you can help each other, and you can build together.

You've to go and seek those people. Sometimes you're fortunate and you find them where you work or live, but sometimes you have to go and seek those like-minded people.

[00:27:44] Fiona Spencer: To do that, I think it helps buoy you up and renew you and give you enthusiasm. And I think it's really important, to keep that enthusiasm throughout your life.

[00:27:56] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely

 If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

[00:28:01] Fiona Spencer: Ooh, a superpower, an interesting one. I think if I had a superpower, it would be to be able to show lots of young women what they could achieve if they put their minds to it. Not quite to showing somebody the future but showing them how they could be inspirational. That would be my superpower.

Think sometimes we need confidence to go and have a go at things and creating that confidence in people would be my superpower.

[00:28:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think it's a lovely superpower. I hope that could come to you. I'm sure you do that in your own way, build people up, but you're absolutely right. Many people, especially women, struggle with, the imposter syndrome and the fear of failure, which holds you back from going out and doing things. So that's a really nice one. And I hope it comes true.

[00:29:00] Fiona Spencer: Thank you very much, Deepa. So do I.

[00:29:02] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Let's keep our fingers crossed. It is the beginning of the year when we're talking, so good things are coming.

Fiona, thank you so much for taking the time. I really enjoyed learning about supporting women and children and all the lovely ways that you're doing it in very practical ways to make people's lives better.

[00:29:20] Fiona Spencer: Glad to be able to share it with you, Deepa, and your listeners, and I hope it will enthuse and encourage them.

[00:29:28] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm sure it will. Thank you so much.

Outro

 Fiona, I really enjoyed learning about supporting women and girls today.

Next week on Tuesday 12th March 2024, I speak to Tahira Khanam about supporting the community.

Dear listener, I hope you were inspired by today's episode and it sparks your passion to make change happen wherever you live and work. I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our community for your support and feedback.

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