Local resident Marianne Goodchild OBE, who founded a national charity, the College of Health, will be celebrated at a concert in St John’s Leytonstone this Saturday
Pitchstone Music’s begins its 2026 season on Saturday 24th January with a live performance at St John’s Church in Leytonstone celebrating the life of Marianne Goodchild (Rigge) OBE, a local resident and campaigner for NHS patients’ rights.
Marianne founded a national charity, the College of Health, with the social entrepreneur Michael Young, who was the inspiration behind organisations including the Open University and the Consumers’ Association. Together they set up the College of Health in 1983, with the aim of influencing NHS doctors to put the needs of patients at the centre of treatment and care decisions.
It helped thousands of people by operating a telephone service with recorded medical information about a range of diseases and conditions – something that was considered technologically innovative for its time. Long before hospital treatment waiting times became a way of judging how well the NHS is performing, the College of Health published the annual Guide to Hospital Waiting Lists, which first appeared in 1984. Marianne ran the charity as director from Bethnal Green for 20 years.
The free concert, at St John’s Church in Leytonstone, will feature the Italian lyricism and Russian intensity of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, along with the joy and vitality of Brahms’ String Quintet Op 111. It starts at 7pm and there will be an interval where wine will be served.
People are asked to register their interest to help manage numbers at the venue.
For more details visit this link
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