A caring Hadleigh councillor has managed to secure at least one day of free dental treatment in Hadleigh.

Angela Wiltshire, who represents Hadleigh North on the town council but has been a campaigner in the town for many years, has been battling to get the specialist charity Dentaid to visit the town and provide its free service since January, before being elected in March this year.

The charity was originally set up to provide dental services overseas, which had begun working in the UK as a response to the crisis in service provision.

Nub News reported in depth about its visit to Felixstowe, mainly to help fishermen, but open to all residents, and the mobile unit has also visited Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

Concerns and confusion about the closure of {my dentist} in late December and the difficulty in securing an NHS appointment for dentistry work prompted Cllr Wiltshire in January to first get in touch with Dentaid when it became clear that there were people in Hadleigh really suffering for lack of an NHS dentist.

There was also a lot of confusion about whether the dentists in Hadleigh were taking NHS patients anymore.

Cllr Wiltshire was originally knocked back by Dentaid but after she conducted a social media poll, and showed persistency, Dentaid agreed and will now provisionally visit Hadleigh on a date to be confirmed in October.

She said: "When I first asked whether they could come to Hadleigh, they said that they didn't think so, but over the months I kept up my contact with them and they have now offered us a provisional date in October, which is so kind, because they are in huge demand. 

"The success of the visits to Bury St Edmunds and Felixstowe is well documented and I am looking forward to them coming and relieving some of the tooth pain and problems which exist in Hadleigh.

"I can understand that it is a real challenge to prioritise your teeth when you are struggling to find the money to feed yourself and pay bills.

"I'm so grateful to Dentaid for putting us into their diary." 

The cost of the visit will be approximately £2,000 and Cllr Wiltshire will be seeking grant funding from Hadleigh's district councillor locality budget awards, along with funding from the county councillor and the town council.

If they are not forthcoming businesses will be approached for sponsorship, and a suitable site for Dentaid's mobile unit is also being sought.

Cllr Wiltshire said: "I am looking for financial and practical help with the event and have already received some offers of financial support for the day, but I do need to raise £2,000 to cover Dentaid's costs, and I would welcome any contributions, no matter how small, towards the cost of the visit.

Please contact me if you can help: [email protected]

Dentaid charity website here...

Fishermen delighted with free dental treatment

As well as being a town councillor, Angela Wiltshire is a psychiatric nurse. She worked in the NHS in London from 1984. before moving to Suffolk in 2004, when she began working at North Essex Mental Health Partnership Trust in Colchester, and moved to Hadleigh in 2005. Angela left the NHS in 2015 to concentrate on her psychotherapy practice in Colchester and Hadleigh.

In previous years Angela launched the inaugural Christmas window display competition and is currently involved in the King Guthrum Group.