My experience as a u3a Egyptologist

As part of national Volunteer Week, we are focusing on different ways to volunteer at U3A. Neil Stevenson, Upholland U3A, talks about setting up an interest group.

I joined my local U3A in 2009, one year after I retired. My friends David and Heather were members and recommended it to me. When David and I first met over forty years earlier, we were The Likely Lads. Now we are more like Last of The Summer Wine!

The wife of the chair of my U3A was a minister in the Methodist Church. She was interested in our knowledge of Ancient Egypt and its relationship with Biblical history. David and I were encouraged to arrange a study trip to Egypt. The following year, thirty members of our U3A visited Luxor and Cairo for two weeks exploring the temples and tombs of the ancient Egyptians. It was such a successful trip that we set up an Egyptology interest group. Eight years, four study trips to Egypt, and over one hundred talks later, our group has gone from strength to strength.

We now have over sixty members. In addition to regular talks given by members of the group, we have visited Egyptology museum collections all over the country.

And in my spare time I give talks spreading the Egyptology bug to other U3As.

You can read about more of the subjects covered in U3A at https://www.u3a.org.uk/resources/subjects