My dear CADS,
I hope this finds you well and making the most of the tail end of this fabulous summer.
Did anyone else get swept up in SAIL Amsterdam this weekend? I was celebrating my birthday at the same time — very kind of the city to throw such a spectacular party on my behalf! It really was an impressive event.
was a very impressive event indeed!
Annual Boat Cruise
Of course, CADS had its own big splash this month with our Annual Boat Cruise on Friday 15th. Once again, the weather was on our side, and we had a fantastic turnout. Thank you all for supporting this event so wholeheartedly.
Repeat Request for Photos!
As part of our ongoing website revamp, we’d love to showcase more photos of past CADS events. If you have any high-quality images that reflect the spirit of our community (no matter how old), please send them my way!
📸 Photo Consent Reminder
Some of these photos may appear on publicly accessible pages of the CADS website. If you’d prefer not to appear in any images, just let me know. Otherwise, I’ll assume you’re happy for us to include your smiling face.
Calendar of events
To help with planning ahead, here’s our confirmed event calendar for the rest of 2025. Please note a few dates are slightly off the usual 3rd Friday due to venue availability. We’re always looking for excellent speakers—particularly for 2026 and beyond—so if you know someone compelling (or would like to speak yourself!), let me know. We don’t pay external speakers, but we do thank them with a nice lunch and a bottle of something lovely.
AGM Agenda items
In October, we will be holding our Annual General Meeting at the KIGC. I’ll share the formal agenda closer to the date, but in the meantime, please send any agenda items directly via email to the Chair.
September Dinner
Our speaker at the September dinner is Geraint Davies, who will be travelling from Cardiff to join us. Geraint was awarded a CBE in 2012 for his decades of voluntary work for charitable organisations in Wales. As well as working as a non-executive director of several organisations, he is a passionate advocate of Maggie’s, a charity offering support to cancer patients and their families. HM Queen Camilla has been Maggie’s patron since 2008.
“Maggie’s offers a warm, homely space where the person, not the illness, is central.”
Maggie’s centres are calm, friendly places whose object is to help ordinary people who have cancer and their family and friends find the hope, determination and resources they need to cope with one of the toughest challenges any of us is likely to have to face.
The first Maggie’s centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and it has been followed by centres throughout the UK and more recently in other countries. Last year, Maggie’s opened a centre at the University Medical Centre in Groningen.
Geraint will tell us about Maggie’s centres and the important work they do. In the meantime you can find more information on Maggie’s in general on https://www.maggies.org/ and on the Groningen centre on https://www.maggiescenters.nl/ .
Final Note
Thanks for all your ongoing support and enthusiasm. It’s what makes CADS such a special community.
Our next event is the September Dinner on Thursday September 18th in Amsterdam.
