Laburnum Centre celebrates 20 year anniversary

"I love it here," said Mrs Price. "It's ideal for me. It is a community here. Everybody helps everybody else and is very friendly.

"It's a good place to come to and you can do what you want to do within reason."

Mrs Price and her late husband joined the centre on its first day of January 1, 1990. She became a volunteer just 24 hours later and immediately began to help in the drop-in cafe and running the darts classes.

She still volunteers two mornings a week 20 years on and visits the centre on Lyon Street most days.

"I'm a hostess when I'm a volunteer," she said. "I go round to anybody who is on their own to make sure they are comfortable and to get a laugh or two from them if I can."

Mrs Price, 87, of Richmond Road North, is one of a handful of ever-present members who have stayed loyal to the centre.

Its first day as the 1990s started was followed by an official opening on March 26, 1990.

This anniversary was celebrated on Friday, March 26, with a meal for some 70 members. The food was subsidised by the centre's Friends and had an iced sponge cake made by the centre's cook, Alma Whitmarsh, as its centrepiece.

The lifestyle centre for the over-50s has almost 900 members. They pay 20 for six months and have the choice of 42 activities which, apart from flower arranging, are free to join in.

They include painting, photography, handbell ringing, yoga, carpet bowls and calligraphy.

Friends chairwoman Iris Riddle said: "We need the people of Bognor to support us. It's a lifeline for so many people.

"For some of our members, the food they have here is their only cooked meal of the week. It is also a social centre for many of them."

The centre has been run since July 2006 by Age Concern West Sussex.

Volunteer Daphne Marsh, 81, of Gravits Lane, said its continuation was vital to many people. She has helped out since she joined the centre in 1990.

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