British High Commission Road Shows It was with some pride that a letter was received in the SSAFA Branch office from the British High Commission, asking us to accompany them on a series of Road Shows across the island. It was even more special to find out we were the only outside “Agency” to be asked to attend all the shows. So it was at 11.00 on Monday 16th May, the Chairman and Publicity Officer arrived at the Paphos Branch of the UKCA to be met by Lorna King from the BHC Consular Office. The Club House was packed out with local members and non members all keen to hear from the BHC. All the shows followed the same format (and the same jokes) and the presentations lasted about one hour, with coffee, tea and home made cakes and flapjacks afterwards. On Monday the team were at Paphos. Tuesday we were at the UKCA in Limassol. Wednesday, we were in the UKCA Larnaca and Thursday we gave 2 packed presentations in the BHC’s premises, Shakespeare House, in Northern Nicosia for UK nationals in Northern Cyprus.  The first speaker was James McCamley who is the head of the Consular Section. He gave a ten minute talk on what his Section can and cannot to for British Nationals in Cyprus. The next speaker was Tina Graham who talked about SSAFA Forces Help work in the Ex-Patriot community. The final talk was from Darryl and Martyn who had flown in from the British Embassy in Spain. These two chaps are experts in medical and pension rights within the EU and gave a good overview of the DWP in a thirty minute presentation. At the Larnaca and Nicosia presentations the High Commissioner, Mr Matthew Kidd, also gave a ten minute talk on why he had decided to run the Road Shows. At the end of the presentations over refreshments, visitors could speak to all the speakers and also representatives from the Cypriot Social Welfare Services, Social Insurance Services, Ministry of Health and Honary Legal Advisor. Of course the SSAFA and the Consular Office had a stand. This is where the Drew Elgeti and Tina Graham had more time to talk to everyone who wanted to know about SSAFA’s work and even offered to become SSAFA Volunteers. An hour and quarter was scheduled for questions and answers but we carried on until everyone who wanted to ask questions had been answered. The week was a resounding success. As far as SSAFA Branch are concerned it gave us a great opportunity to increase the awareness of SSAFA on the island and also to meet face to face the Consular Team at BHC who we are working with so closely on a regular basis.