Latest news with #SarahWalker
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Big names to take to stage at York's Grand Opera House for St Leonard's Hospice
York drag queen Velma Celli is staging an event for St Leonard's Hospice reports MAXINE GORDON YORK'S most famous drag queen is hosting a charity concert in memory of his mum and in support of St Leonard's Hospice. Ian Stroughair (aka York drag queen Velma Celli) has joined forces with his friend Sarah Walker - daughter of the late Heartbeat author Peter Walker - to organise the show, titled Voices United: Rubies for our Angels. It will take place at York's Grand Opera House on Friday July 18 at 7.30pm and star Velma Celli as well as Jess Steel, Stuart Allan, Joanne Theaker-Spencer, Laura Castle, and Jonny and the Dunebugs, among others. Tickets are available from The evening of music will be in honour St Leonard's Hospice which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. York drag queen Velma Celli is organising a fundraiser for St Leonard's Hospice in July. Image supplied Ian said: "My dear mum Pauline Kennington passed away after her battle with cancer eight years ago in St Leonard's Hospice. A horrible time made much easier by the wonderful kindness of the angels at St Leonard's. "By awful freaky coincidence, my dearest friend Sarah Walker and her family lost their legendary dad and husband Peter Walker just weeks before my mum and then devastatingly so her precious sister Tricia Walker just months later. An utterly heartbreaking time for all." Peter and Tricia Walker Retired policeman Peter was better known as writer Nicholas Rhea, whose Constable series of books was turned into the hugely popular TV series Heartbeat. Sarah said: "This will be a charity fundraising concert in memory of my dad, sister, and my Ian's mum who all died in St Leonard's Hospice York within months of each other. It is also the hospice's 40th anniversary, so we felt it a fitting time to do it this year." She added: "Both Ian and I have long wanted to repay the hospice for the support our families received at the most difficult of times. Ian came up with the idea of a charity show after learning that St Leonard's receives just a quarter of its annual running costs from the NHS. The other six million pounds has to come from fundraising. We want to do our bit to help.' All of the artists are donating their time and talent for free so as much money as possible will go directly to the hospice, added Ian. Sarah Atkinson, community and events manager at St Leonard's said: "We're really excited about the upcoming Voices United evening at the Grand Opera House as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. St Leonards Hospice in York Image: Supplied "The compassionate care we provide at St Leonard's Hospice is only possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, and we very much appreciate the continued support. So, book your tickets for a glittering evening of entertainment and join us in celebrating both the talent and spirit that make our work possible."
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Watershed council to host event aimed at landowner partnerships, resources
Necanicum Estuary Logs lay strewn among seagrass in Necanicum Estuary Natural History Park in Seaside. The Necanicum Watershed Council is inviting residents and private landowners to learn more about natural resource conservation at a first-of-its-kind event this Saturday. The event — which will bring environmental nonprofits and agencies from across the community together in one room — is part of the watershed council's Necanicum Together campaign, an effort supported by a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board aimed at building partnerships with private landowners. As part of the program, the nonprofit has engaged in landowner outreach, and in September it hosted a 'get to know your watershed council' event. 'At that meeting, we heard a wide variety of concerns, so everything from erosion to invasive weeds,' said Operations Director Sarah Walker. 'As a watershed council, there are only so many things that we can do, and so it seemed like the next step was to try and get all of those resources into one room for landowners.' That's exactly the goal of Saturday's event. Walker said residents will have the opportunity to learn from different agencies at information tables, engage in a question and answer session and hear from speakers from the Necanicum Watershed Council, North Coast Watershed Association and Tillamook Estuaries Partnership. Other participants include the Clatsop Soil and Water District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, North Coast Land Conservancy, Clatsop County OSU Extension Services and Master Gardener Association, PNW Native Landscapes and the Chinook Indian Nation. 'Ideally what we'd hoped for is that people leave with a roster of contacts of who they call when they need to call them,' she said. Much of the land in the Necanicum Basin is owned by Nuveen Natural Capital – an entity that the watershed council already has a strong working relationship with for restoration projects, Walker said. As the nonprofit continues its efforts with Necanicum Together, however, she said the hope is to bring other individual landowners into the conversation, too. 'Connecting with those folks not only lets us ID like, 'Oh, this is a great place for river restoration, and we can come onto your private property and help,' but also, our regular outreach and education messages about how to protect the watershed, that really should be digestible to most everybody that lives here,' she said. The event is from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Bob Chisholm Community Center in Seaside. People can RSVP at 'We're just excited to try it out and see if it's helpful for the folks that come, and then also helpful for all of the organizations that are working in the same place, essentially, with the same goal,' Walker said.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cisco's top exec spent 25 years climbing the ladder at one firm—she tells Gen Z and middle managers ‘you just need to be patient'
Gen Z and millennial workers think job-hopping is the only way up the ladder these days. But Cisco's U.K. CEO's career journey proves that patience could be key to long-term success. Company loyalty is dying. Research has shown that 75% of employees leave their gig before ever getting promoted; They're giving their bosses just 3 years to promote them before concluding the job is a dead end and jumping ship. But Cisco's new U.K. chief has a word of warning for young workers who expect a raise and a shiny new job title every year: 'You just need to be patient in the journey,' Sarah Walker tells Fortune—and middle managers need to be 'really patient.' She would know. The 45-year-old boss spent 25 years climbing the ranks at the Fortune 500 Europe telecommunications giant BT. In that time, Walker went from joining the sales team at the £14.21 billion British ($17.7 billion) legacy brand to leaving as its director of corporate and public sector. Following a mini micro-retirement, she joined Cisco as managing director before being promoted to lead its U.K. and Ireland arm just two years later. In Walker's rise to the top, some promotions came in as little as a year and a half—others took longer than 6 years. 'When I started in sales, we faxed contracts and waited, we didn't have email that we could use with customers, just good old fashioned letters,' she explains. 'So patience was a byproduct of how we lived at that time.' 'As a society, we've moved on to where everything is immediate and that does bleed into people's expectations of how quickly progression should be made and the pressure that people put on themselves to say, 'I have to get promoted within a year and if I haven't, then that means I'm not on the right trajectory, and therefore I'm going to go elsewhere and see if I can get there any quicker.'' However, outside of the seemingly constant wins on your LinkedIn feed, in reality, progression takes time, Walker warns. Plus, waiting for the right opportunities matters more than rushing to take up the next step up on paper—and failing. 'Different stages of your career, the step-ups can become bigger,' she says. 'A lot of the time, you find that in the middle management level, that's the time to be really patient because the higher up you go within an organization, the bigger exposure, bigger pressure, less opportunity to fail in many instances, and it's more visible.' In other words, slow and steady wins the race when it comes to sustainable success. 'There should be no time constraints on how quickly you progress,' she adds. 'You need to make sure that you're moving at the right time and the right pace.' 'As long as you never feel that you are stagnant, you feel that you're being appropriately challenged, you're learning new skill sets, you know that you're moving forward.' The trouble with being patient and trusting that a promotion will come in time is that there is a real chance that in 5 years you're still in the same role—when you could have job hopped at least twice, gained new skills, and a significantly higher salary. So, how can you tell whether or not your employer is worth investing years of your time in? For those early in their careers, it all comes down to whether or not you've ever actually vocalized with your manager where you want your career to go, Walker says. The CEO says it's on you, the worker, to outline your ambitions to employers and build a personal development plan. However, if your managers are aligned with your career goals, you're working together through that plan, and opportunities are coming up—but you're being bypassed—then, Walker says, that's a big red flag. 'Maybe there isn't the right level of movement above you to create that opportunity, that's the point where you'd start to have different conversations,' she highlights, adding that if your boss has been in the same role for eons and is looking pretty comfortable, then it's time to ask, what's next? 'Be really clear on whether you think those opportunities will exist, or whether you've reached the ceiling within the organization and in the environment that you're in, and if something external opens up those different opportunities,' she concludes. 'But if you haven't got a plan and that hasn't been kind of aligned to a mentor or a coach or a sponsor, it will be difficult for you to calibrate whether it is the right time or whether you've developed enough to be expecting of that next opportunity.' Her advice for those in middle management who may not see a promotion on paper for some time? Start looking for opportunities to grow your influence and skillset beyond your day-to-day responsibilities, like taking up a NED role. 'Be really clear on what personal progression looks like outside of a promotion, pay rise, grade increase, so that you still have those cognitive ways of knowing that you are moving forward, even if the job title hasn't changed,' she says. 'People who do that could be at the same level of an organization for a really long period of time, but they've developed and grown.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How to complete on a property before stamp duty deadline in March
In September 2022, the Conservative government introduced a temporary reduction in stamp duty land tax (SDLT). The current Labour government has not extended this, which means many property buyers, including those buying their first home, will have to pay thousands more in upfront costs from 1 April 2025. No wonder there's been a rush of activity in the UK property market. A recent survey of homebuyers, who had had offers accepted in the past three months, found that 51% were aiming to complete before the SDLT deadline, while January's Zoopla House Price Index showed new sales agreed were up 12% annually and buyer demand had increased by 13%. December's report found similarly positive sentiment with house prices rising 2% in the year to December 2024, compared to a 0.9% drop in 2023. With this in mind, we spoke to several experts for their advice on how to get your property purchase through as quickly as possible. With 31 March just over a couple of months away, you need to have really already agreed a price with your vendors. 'It used to take around 8 to 12 weeks (so two to three months) but not anymore. Rightmove is saying it's now closer to five months on average. That's nearly double what most people expect,' says Sarah Walker, owner of Walker Hall Estate Agents. Read more: 7 property planning trends of 2025 'If you're hoping to complete before the end of March to save on stamp duty, you need to get moving right now. There's no wiggle room for delays.' To ensure your property completes by the stamp duty deadline, it's worth being aware of the things that snare up and slow down the process. 'The most common causes of delays include protracted enquiries, complications with leasehold properties and/or management companies, and long property chains,' says Ed Percival, director and head of legal practice at Simply Conveyancing. 'Depending on the local authority and the freeholder, extracting local searches and a management pack can take significant time,' adds Emma Fildes, founder of buying agency Brick Weaver. If you're in a chain, there's also a chance of a broken chain causing delays. If one person's sale is delayed or falls through, that will delay or affect yours, even though their sale is completely independent from yours. As well as missing the stamp duty deadline, property delays can be stressful and costly, especially if you're renting while waiting to buy. It's worth knowing, therefore, which properties are prone to taking more time. As management companies are often the cause of delays, sales involving leasehold properties tend to take longer. 'Leaseholds are taking a lot longer than average since the new fire risk regulations have been introduced. Solicitors have a lot more hoops to jump, and management companies have a lot more information to process,' says Nick Karamanlis, personal broker at Moveli. If you're buying a property that has safety concerns, budget in extra time for the purchasing process. 'Properties impacted by the Building Safety Act (BSA) or those with cladding issues can take significant time to transact,' flags Percival. While probate properties are chain-free, make sure that probate has been granted if you're after a speedy completion. 'Sales involving a deceased estate require a Grant of Probate, which can take several weeks or months. If there are issues with wills or beneficiaries, the sale will be delayed,' says Jonathan Bone, head of mortgages at On the flip side, quick sales often involve cash purchases, where there's no mortgage required, and also new-build properties. 'If the property is ready to move into, purchases may be faster. However, delays can occur if the build isn't finished — some lender mortgage offers can be valid for 12 months, rather than the typical six, to cater to unfinished properties,' says Bone. Read more: How to find your 'forever home' in 2025 As chains can slow things down, not having a chain will speed it up. 'If you're buying a chain-free property, like a new-build or from someone who's already moved out, things tend to move faster because there are fewer people to rely on,' says Walker. While external factors, such as chain issues, are outside your control, there are things you can do to speed up the process. 'This includes having finances in place, securing a mortgage in principle, and having all necessary documentation ready such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Source of Funds (SOF), and Source of Wealth (SOW) documents,' says Percival. As well as organising your solicitor before you even put in an offer, make sure they are up to the job by getting a recommendation from a friend or family member who's used them to buy a property before. 'It really is about choosing a competent solicitor and making sure you are chasing for updates. This is not the part where you should be saving money,' says Karamanlis. If you're aiming to complete by a certain date, flag this to all parties as soon as your offer is accepted. While there's no legal obligation to complete by a certain date, if there's a target date, it will help everyone involved focus on getting to that deadline. Read more: The UK's top property hotspots in 2025 While you can't choose the estate agent you're buying from, keep in constant contact with them and your solicitor to ensure things move forward. 'A good solicitor and estate agent can be game changers here. They'll keep things on track, chase up slow responses, and handle the nitty-gritty so you don't have to stress as much. Don't be afraid to lean on them; they've done this a million times before,' says Walker. You also need to learn the art of compromise. 'You don't always get what you're after with a complex transaction like buying a house, having some wiggle room with the other party's requests can save you a huge amount of time,' says Bone. It might even be worth trying to build up a relationship with the vendor. That way, any issues that come up can be smoothed over relatively easily. While there are lots you can do to speed up the process, buying a property doesn't happen overnight and you need to be realistic about timings. 'Unless you are a cash buyer with no chain, the chances of completing within eight weeks are usually slim,' says Percival. Read more: Best UK mortgage deals of the week Average rent surges to £2,695 in London and £1,341 across UK UK's most and least affordable places for house prices revealedSign in to access your portfolio
