I'd love to be reunited with holiday friends
Sue Riddle is desperately seeking the two girls pictured alongside her at the Leicester Children's Holiday Centre, in Mablethorpe.
She needs them to help her piece together memories of her time spent at the centre in 1953.
Sue, (nee La-Band) 68, of Cosby, said: "All I remember is the steps from a tap dance we did for a concert, although I can't remember anything about the concert itself."
Sue is one of thousands of youngsters who have enjoyed holidays at the centre over the years.
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The Leicester Mercury is running an appeal to help the centre raise £65,000 for a new boiler and central heating system. The appeal has so far raised more than £33,000, allowing it to replace its boiler. Fund-raising efforts continue.
At a recent funeral, Sue got chatting to villagers Ian and June Mullis, who have a connection with the centre through fund-raising they do for it.
Mr Mullis gave Sue a DVD copy of a film about the centre and it prompted her to look again at the photographs she had of her stay there.
Sue said: "It was lovely seeing all the children running down to the sand and rolling in it on the video, but I can't remember things in any detail.
"I was a nervous youngster and I had eczema. I had it for years from being a young child, but I grew out of it.
"I used to go to a place called Richmond House for sunlight treatment. You used to have to sit there stripped to the waist, wearing goggles."
Sue, who has two sons and four grandchildren and used to run a soft furnishings business from home, said: "We weren't rich, but we were not what you would call poor, either.
"I can only imagine someone from Richmond House recommended me because of the benefits I might get from being in the sun at the seaside. It's definitely why I went."
Among the pictures she has of her time spent there as a nine-year-old girl, is this one of her with the centre's "auntie" Maureen and "uncle" Dennis, the term given to the centre's carers, along with two other girls.
She knows the names of the two girls, with Irene Simpson, who used to live in Filbert Street, on the right, while on the left is Susan, whose surname Sue believes was Smith.
Sue said: "I haven't seen either of them since then.
"I would love to meet up with them and maybe they could help jog my memory about the happy time we had there.
"I think what the centre does is brilliant for the way it helps so many children have a holiday."
The centre suffered a recent setback when part of a chimney, which is being fitted with a new flue liner for the boiler, collapsed, damaging the roof and causing about £1,000 damage.
Jim Roberts, the charity's chairman, said: "We're hoping it's covered by our insurance. It's just part of the constant battle for the upkeep of old buildings."
Comments
by Stoned
Monday, February 25 2013, 1:43PM
“I remember having 'sunlight' treatment at Richmond House in around 1961 for a BCG inoculation that went 'funny', as they used to say. It formed a large open sore area on my arm but after treatment it cleared up although I still have the scar. Richmond house was next door to the old Gateway Boys school building on Richmond Street. I recall my mother telling me that she had a wonderful time at the Mablethorpe Holiday Centre in the mid 1920's after recovering from a long illness.”