Marlene Sladen

A dear friend of Tanglewood Marlene Sladen died on March 10th after a long illness. Some of you may remember Marlene from her time at Harrow Mencap. Marlene joined that organisation in 1986 as a development officer and ended up as its Director until she took early retirement in 1996.

At the time of her retirement Marlene stated that she was proud of her achievements with Harrow Mencap which included the opening of Residential homes and the Harrow Activity centre, which at that time was being managed by Tanglewood club helper Pam Englefield.

I have kept in regular contact with her ever since – in fact shortly before her retirement she took on a number in our 100 club and ten years later took on a second number. Her total outlay, up to and including March of this year, was £2,436. Her numbers won prize money on 13 occasions winning £1,230, Typical of Marlene’e generosity she donated all her winnings back to Tanglewood.

You may remember that shortly after I lost Julie I received a cheque for £2,000 for Julie’s memorial fund. At the time I was told to keep that donation as anonymous but I can now reveal that it came from Marlene,

She was a lovely person and those who knew and remember her will all be very saddened by her passing. I’m afraid that the only photograph I have of her is of very poor quality – I have copied it from a Tanglewood magazine published on green paper at the time of her retirement.

On behalf of everyone at Tanglewood I offer my sincere condolences to her family and fiends.