The Mayor of Preston's April blog

April began when I joined Old Knackers Football Club for some training and a game! They are a great group of guys who get together for physical and mental well-being and enjoy playing football. Open to all men of any ability - really good way to get away from it all and keep fit with no pressure.

I was delighted to cut the ribbon at Mericourt Nursery at their official inauguration.

Congratulations on all the hard work so far and best of luck for the future!

We visited the amazing DLN Dance group to see a sneak peek of their routines ahead of them going to represent the UK in international competition in Germany in May. Such incredible dancers! Good luck and I know you'll do Preston proud!

Congratulations to everyone who joined us for our traditional egg rolling on Avenham Park, despite a little rain! It was great to see thousands of you braving the weather, rolling eggs, making bonnets and having a boogie!

A big thank you to all those working behind the scenes to make it happen!

I was pleased to meet some of the great team at Trust House Lancashire to hear about the important work they do working with survivors of sexual abuse. Thank you for your ongoing hard work to help people of all ages and backgrounds. I'm pleased to say that I have agreed to continue to help them beyond the end of my term as Mayor and will be running at sponsored events for them later this year to help them raise much needed funds and awareness.

Last month, I also visited Preston Community Hub where they were holding an event for many charities and services helping people in the community. In particular we were promoting Bowel Cancer awareness as April is Bowel Cancer screening month - so get yourself checked. It can be deadly if left but if caught fast, it is one of the easiest cancers to treat.

I welcomed Dance Syndrome to the Town Hall - and they were sharing their usual amazing energy! Take a look at some of their upcoming programme, everyone of all abilities is welcome to join them!

I had the great pleasure to attend the final presentation for the Deepdale and Preston Central Teams from the Prince's Trust - very proud to see these amazing young people completing their course. Congratulations and best of luck for the future! Thanks to all involved.

It was amazing to join the Avenham park Junior park run for the 250th Junior Park run. Well done to all the young people taking part and thank you to all the volunteers who work so hard to make this happen!

My role for the day was one of the "tail walkers" - hence the fluffy tail!

Also in April, I officially opened the 2023 Preston Arts Festival.

There was so much happening over this special fortnight - I hope you got to see some of it. We have so much incredible talent here in Preston and this is the best place to see it!

Preston Carnival fundraiser

I featured on  BBC Radio Lancashire talking about the Preston Carnival fundraiser - where I joined the Carnival team in defying gravity, more than 1000ft above sea level to conquer the Infinity Bridge which we did successfully walked the Honister Slate Mine Infinity Bridge. If you can donate to support this festival of music, dancing and colour please do by visiting go fund me - walking for Preston Caribbean Carnival.

The Carnival will return to the streets of Preston on 28 May!

The results of the Preston Arts Festival portrait challenge are on display at The Larder for the next few weeks. Some amazing pieces - all much better than my own abilities!  Congratulations to the winner!

I also had the pleasure of introducing our city, our history and our regalia to a wonderful group from Preston City of Sanctuary. It's always special to be able to share what makes Preston special with people!

I later very much enjoyed joining the kids at Royal Cross School - a wonderful school catering for deaf children - for a morning in their excellent forest school. Playing in the mud, pond dipping and cooking marshmallows - so much fun!

We celebrated St George's Day with Preston and District Scouts - and got to join in with some of the activities with the young people! Great to see so many kids having an amazing time. Thanks to all the leaders for their hard work too. There's always room for more volunteers - speaking as a former Scout leader myself, I can vouch for how rewarding it is!

I really enjoyed joining Team Kick about for a game (even got a goal!)

A great group set up with dads in mind to give guys a space to relax, have a laugh and enjoy a casual game of football. Great for physical and mental health!

Yesterday morning I visited Red Rose Recovery to see the work they do helping people in difficult circumstances find their feet without judgement. If you know anyone struggling with alcohol or other substances - tell them they can pop in here for a chat and helping hand.

On Tuesday evening I visited Preston Sea Cadets - TS Galloway to see some of their cadets training - and even joined in with the CPR! They're a very skilled & dedicated group of young people and a credit to our city. You can often see them on parade at Remembrance Day and other events supporting Preston and our armed forces on civic occasions - and they are always immaculately presented.

I met Joanne from Intractable to talk about their campaign to help children and young people with severe epilepsy get the treatment they need. It's very important work which changes lives for whole families.

It was a pleasure to meet OJ and other members of the Knitting Café to show them around the Council Chamber and Mayor's Parlour. We had a wonderful chat and I was pleased to share some of the history of our city, Town Hall and civic regalia with them. Thanks for coming!

The Hall Players performed the thriller Gaslight at Preston Playhouse Theatre as part of the Preston Arts Festival - and an incredible performance it is too! It was a joy.

The Let's Grow Preston Spring Fair was outstanding - amazing to see so many people there enjoying themselves in the lovely weather. Let's Grow Preston do great work all year round, and it was lovely to see it all on display at the fair!

Mayor's Charity Coronation Ball

April ended with a wonderful bang as I hosted the Mayor's Charity Coronation Ball at UCLan in the heart of our city. We hosted almost 200 people, including other mayors visiting from around Lancashire. At the time of writing we have raised more than £3,000 for the mayoral charities - The Intact Centre and the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone attending for their generous support, and a particular thank you to those who sponsored the event to ensure it could go ahead: Conlon Construction, FWP, Porsche Centre Preston, R&R Accounting, and the Preston Arts Festival. All the official photos for the event were by the incredibly talented Lucy of 'Lucy and the Lens' photography who very kindly donated her time and expertise to support the Ball and the mayoral charities.

You can find out about my other visits at Facebook - Preston Mayor and you can also follow me on X - Preston Mayor.

There will be more detail about my latest engagements next month as I also take a look back on my year as the 694th Mayor of Preston, so I hope you'll join me for my very last Mayor's Blog then.

Neil