
ALT Tricia was born in Sunderland in the North East of England. She trained as a diagnostic radiographer and after moving to Skipton in Yorkshire in 1973, with her husband Ian, Tricia worked at Airedale General Hospital. After they moved into a small village of Cracoe in the Yorkshire Dales, a neighbour, Angela Baker invited her to join the WI, telling her that the locals would think she was funny if she didn’t join. In February 1998 John Baker, Angela’s husband, was diagnosed with non Hodgkins Lymphoma. Sadly he died just five months later and, to raise funds in his memory, Tricia’s idea for the alternative WI calendar was born.

ALT Douglas was a RAF jet flying instructor at the age of 25 in 1988 when he was suddenly grounded by type 1 diabetes. With zero countries around the world allowing any pilot a licence in 1988, Douglas changed career to the asset management industry. However, his passion for flying continued unabashed and in 2001 he returned to aviation with a private pilot licence to fly with insulin treated diabetes in the USA. Therein began a new flying career of setting challenging aviation records, aiming to raise positive awareness of flying with diabetes which could help persuade aviation authorities around the world to enable pilots with insulin-treated diabetes to fly. Douglas’ talk will cover a number of his challenging diabetes awareness-raising flying projects, including a round the world flight in 2002 in a Beech Baron (with 220 extra gallons of fuel on board for the longest flight), a record-setting flight to the North Pole in 2011 and landing on the polar ice at Russia’s Borneo Ice Camp

ALT Tricia Stewart was born in Sunderland in the North East of England. She trained as a diagnostic radiographer and after moving to Skipton in Yorkshire in 1973, with her husband Ian, Tricia worked at Airedale General Hospital. After they moved into a small village of Cracoe in the Yorkshire Dales, a neighbour, Angela Baker invited her to join the WI, telling her that the locals would think she was funny if she didn’t join.

ALT Dr Ruth Larsen is a Senior lecturer in History and the programme leader for the undergraduate History programmes at the University of Derby. Ruth teaches a number of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, covering a wide range of topics, including the history of the body, material culture studies and research methodologies. Her research expertise is in eighteenth and nineteenth century British history and she has published widely on gender history, the history of the aristocracy and the country house.

























