Over 1600 women came together for the Council meeting of the Lancashire Federation of Women Institutes at the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre.   Last Thursday’s gathering also included eight delegates from the Salford Angels WI.

After the official business of presenting accounts and reports the highlights included keynote speeches from Sally Kettle and Dame Stella Rimington.

Sally is the first woman to row the Atlantic Ocean twice and she gave an inspirational presentation into her tribulations crossing the Atlantic from East to West and once with her mother! All her adventures have been for good causes and she raised over £500K for charity and she is the author of ‘Sally is Odd at Sea’.

Dame Stella Rimington, the first female General Director of MI5 from 1992- 1996 worked in all three branches of the Security Service, counter espionage, counter subversion and counter terrorism. Stella shared snippets from her memoirs ‘Open Secret’ and has published several novels since leaving the Security Service.

Ursula, who recently joined the Salford Angels WI said ‘The Council meeting gave me a good insight into the workings of the Lancashire WI Federation which consists of over 7000 members. The day has been really uplifting and it feels great being part of such a welcoming and campaigning women’s movement.’