IT Skills Training, November and December — London Region of u3as has organised another programme for developing your IT skills. Open to all London u3a members. See the details here with link to the sign up form: IT Skills Programme.

End of Life Planning: in 2019 we started a tie-up with Gentle Dusk regarding End of Life Planning. They hold 'End of Life Planning Cafes' for our members and provide guidance on how to create a Care Plan. You may find our guide useful to help explain some of the terms — read it here: End of Life Planning (document to be updated). If you have any queries regarding their Future Matters Service, drop them a note: get in touch. As part of this support two of our members provide 'Death Cafes'. This is where members can gather to eat cake, drink tea and coffee, and discuss death and dying. As with all death cafes, there is no agenda or aims, just a free-ranging discussion in which everyone has the chance to be heard or to just listen. It is not bereavement counseling or grief support. These are now based in the Central Library, Holloway Rd. Details of the next of these will be publicised in WOW. Further details are here: Death Cafe Flyer. Please email deathcafeislington@mail.com to find out more or to book your free place at the next session.

'Healthy Generations': is a local charity which runs lots of free exercise classes over the borough. Some of these are face to face, some are online (because they want to reach those people who are unable to get out through illness). Click on the link to get in  touch: www.healthygenerations.org.uk.

Positive Ageing: see here for why u3a helps enable a positive view of growing old: Video
Our new u3a CEO, Iain Cassidy, was recently interviewed, talking about the impact of ageism, and the multi-layered, nationwide initiative "Push Back Ageism" please click this link to view the interview.

Bereavement Support: if you have recently suffered a bereavement you may wish to considering using the Islington Bereavement Community service. You can see some information about the service here or through their website: St. Joseph's Hospice (stjh.org.uk). Or, if you want to help them and consider volunteering for them, find their contact details in the linked document above.

London Age-Friendly Forum (LAFF): u3a is providing input to this. See the latest report on this London Mayor initiative here.

The Third Age Trust is the national U3A organisation. It organises events, competitions and other activities for u3a members nationally. Some of these are in London, others across the country. Some get booked up quickly — to hear about events and when booking opens, you should join the Third Age Trust U3A events mailing list. To do so, you must register (it's very straightforward) with the Third Age Trust website. You can see all their news topics here.

Council Reps: London Region has at last got full representation at the national level. We have two elected representatives who will serve on the new national Council: Jenny Wilson (our previous Regional Trustee and from Croydon u3a) and Chris Bulford (from Islington u3a). You can find more about Jenny here. 


Communications: Third Age Trust are moving towards more electronic communication. There is now a free 'Friends' e-newsletter and any member can register for this here. As requested by u3as, the Trust is trying to raise the profile of the u3a Movement and to publicise the benefits of u3as to raise the membership to 500,000 by the end of 2028. Information on this and much more will be published in the Friends Newsletter.

'u3a Matters' Magazine (previously 'Third Age Matters'): Have you considered taking the national magazine, 'u3a Matters'? It's very good value at just £4.00 for five issues per year. You can select the membership class which includes provision of the magazine when you renew your membership. Or if you missed that option but want to add it now, please contact Joy at iu3amembers@outlook.com. There is also an abbreviated digital version available through the national website: Summer 2025 Version. For all issues look here: u3a Matters Digital If you want to take the full paper version please contact our Membership Secretary or you can tick the box at Renewal time (in Beacon).

Interest Groups Online: There is a wide range of online interest groups (nearly 80 currently) with more than 5700 members from all over the UK. Annual membership is just £12.00. You can find out more information and join through this link: Interest Groups Online.

u3a National Discount Scheme: there is now a discount scheme available for all members called 'u3a Friends Extra'. This offers an extensive range of discount schemes. For a video with more information click here: How to Use Friends Extra or to sign up via Friends see here: Join Friends.

u3a National Online Learning Programme: See full details of current talks programme here.

National Benefits: iU3A pays £4.00 to the national organisation per member. If you ever wonder what benefits we, and you, gain from being part of this (the 17th largest national organisation in the UK) then this might explain it: Where Does My £4 go? 

LRU3A Events: the London Region Events Team are offering an exciting programme of guided walks and events. You can see the details on  LRU3A Events page.
 
Research Projects

Healthy ageing: Noemi Cherestes, a PhD candidate at the University of Westminster, is researching on healthy ageing and is currently recruiting participants for the final group of her study (Ethics approval: ETH 2425-0859). She is looking for males and females aged 18–80 who are not currently engaged in structured exercise but are otherwise healthy. Contact her at N.Cherestes@westminster.ac.uk.
(Posted 7 August 2025; remove 7 October 2025)