Protecting the world's 125 M contact lens users

Our next meeting  will take place on Thursday 13 February 2020 at 7.30 pm in Room D133, UWS, Paisley.

The talk will be delivered by Fiona Henriquez, Professor of Parasitology, School of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of Scotland.

Fiona has kindly provided a short precis of her talk:

Acanthamoeba keratitis is an emerging opportunistic infection caused by the normally free-living protist, Acanthamoeba. Contact lens wear is a major risk factor and their cases and cleaning solutions are vunerable to Acanthamoeba contamination, as this protist is found in every environment, including tap water, swimming pools and air conditioning units. Public and professional awareness is still limited and at UWS we are not only working to understand Acanthamoeba and develop new treatments and prevention measures, but also to engage with the large multinational eye-care industry, Optician practitioners and Ophthalmologists to reduce the risk of the development of microbial keratitis and in particular, Acanthamoeba infections. Interestingly, we are witnessing an emergence of other amoeba pathogens, in particular an infection that is affecting our aquaculture industry, called Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), caused by Paramoeba. At UWS we are translating our knowledge of Acanthamoeba to Paramoeba in the effort to support the aquaculture industry to prevent heavy economic losses due to this infection. 

There is also further information available here


Guests are welcome with  suggested donation of £3.00.

Meeting 23 January 2020

Our next meeting  will take place on Thursday 23 January 2020 at 7.30 pm in Room D133, UWS, Paisley.

The talk will be delivered by Karen Herbison. Karen runs H-Arts who describe themselves as A true hub of drama & creativity. Playwright, Actor, Director and Facilitator Karen specialises in enabling and encouraging creativity & expression.

As well as writing and performing , Karen also carries out educational work.

Her Facebookpage is here H-Arts Facebook
If you wish to join for the remainder of the session, the cost will be half the standard price of £15.00, i.e £7.50.

Guests are welcome with  suggested donation of £3.00.

May Donoghue, Brexit and Consumer Protection

Our first meeting of 2020 will take place on Thursday 9 January 2020 at 7.30 pm in Room D133, UWS, Paisley.

The talk will be delivered by Michael P. Clancy, OBE, Director Law Reform, The Law Society of Scotland on the above subject.


If you wish to join for the remainder of the session, the cost wil be half the standard price of £15.00, i.e £7.50.

Guests are welcome with  suggested donation of £3.00.

Therapeutic Art - A New Tool for Mental Health Workers in Zambia

Our next meeting is on Thursday 28 November ay 7.30. The speaker will be Simon Willoughby-Booth of Zambia Therapeutic Art addressing the above subject.

The meeting will take place in Room D133, McLean Building, UWS, Paisley.

Guests are welcome with a suggested donation of £3.00.

Zambia Therapeutic Art (ZTA) is a volunteer-led Scottish charity, which aims to improve care for mental health service users by designing, developing and delivering practice based training in the therapeutic use of art to health and social care staff; working to ensure its ongoing sustainability; monitoring and evaluating the continuing practice; and conducting research.



With Zambia acting as the pilot, we aim to produce a sustainable model of training and service delivery which can be directed, owned, and managed locally, and that can be continued successfully with minimal external support.



We are registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and our charity number is SC045462. You can find our details on the OSCR website.

Simon Willoughby-Booth, is a trustee of ZTA and also the treasurer. He is a retired Art Therapist, has an MSc by Research, and held senior clinician/manager posts in the NHS in Lothian. He has experience in the public and private sectors and as a charity trustee and has been a ZTA trainer in Zambia since 2017.

Science with impact

Our next meeting is on Thursday 14 November ay 7.30. The speaker will be Brian Quinn of UWS, addressing the above.subject.

 A precis is below

What impact does research have? Or more specifically, as an academic, how do I develop research with impact? How do we define impact? Should this impact be economic, societal or environmental? Does it matter? These questions will be addressed in the Paisley Philosophical Institution lecture by Professor Brian Quinn from the University of the West of Scotland, drawing from 20 years’ experience as an ecotoxicologist working closely with regulators and industry to investigate the impact of novel pollutants on the environment and developing practical techniques to solve current issues.

The meeting will take place in Room  D133, McLean Building, UWS, Paisley .

Guests are welcome with a suggested donation of £3.00.

Paisley and the Jacobites

The next talk on Thursday, 24 October at 7.30 pm, will be on the above topic. The speaker will be Archie Henderson, from Paisley Museum. this is the first of a series of talks from Museum personnel over the next 3 years.

The meeting will take place in Room  D133, McLean Building, UWS, Paisley .

Guests are welcome with a suggested donation of £3.00.

Meeting 10 October 2019

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, 28 March 2019 at 7.30, in room D133, McLean Building, UWS. Paisley Campus. This room is accessed via the main entrance in High Street and will be signposted.

The speaker will be Mandy McIntosh, this is from her website at https://mandymcintosh.com/

Mandy McIntosh is an artist from Glasgow who makes Sculpture, Community Art, Moving Image/Animation, Textiles, Drawing and Painting. In the past few years she has been working predominantly in community settings, namely Ferguslie Park in Paisley , Easterhouse, Castlemilk and Springburn in North Glasgow, where she is from.

Guests are welcome, and we ask that they make a donation, suggested amount £3.00.