Abseil at Dinas Rock

What a lovely day we all had, grandparents, grandchildren, mums, dads supporters and thrill seekers, all joined in our third abseil fundraising event at Dinas Rock in Pontneathvaughan in the Neath Valley. The people from Call of the Wild, who run the event for us free of charge, did their usual terrific job, encouraging some, joking with others. Even a bit of rain couldn't dampen spirits.
Ruth Madoc and her husband John came along to lend their support. People came from as far away as Chesterfield and Weston Supermare to abseil. General supporters came from Trowbridge in Wiltshire and from Liverpool. Our fame spreads far and wide.
Already we have collected £3,200 for Breathe Easy Neath Valley and British Lung Foundation Wales and there is still much more sponsorship to be collected.
So, once again, a successful day and thankyou to all who supported either by abseiling, giving, stewarding or just being there. See you all again next year.
I will publish the final figure when I have it.

Glantawe Lions Easter Charity Fete

On Saturday 11th April we had a stand at the Glantawe Lions Easter Fete. A good chance to talk to a lot of people about the work of the British Lung Foundation Wales and to sell a few items and raffle the two terrace tickets donated to us by Cardiff Blues - thanks to them for supporting us.

A tough life

Laurence MacPherson Jones and Julian Bester spent the afternoon telling us about Julian's earlier life in Poland and later in Russia and then on to his wartime experiences. Julian's family were farmers in Poland and then were forced to go and begin all over again in the Ukraine. When Julian was fourteen his whole family were taken prisoner and sent to one of Stalin's labour camps, felling trees along the Volga River. He told us of the dreadful conditions and inhumanity he experienced there. He then went on to serve in the army in northern Iraq, Italy - famously Monte Casino. What a life and what a remarkable man. After all that he is full of life and laughter.
Mary has resigned as our chairman and her replacemnet is David who we all know will do a grand job. Many thanks to Mary for the work she has done since the group started back in 2006. Such a lot has happened since then.
A couple of weeks ago quite a few of us went to the Swansea group meeting to hear about Haemair. This is an amazing device that re-oxygenates the blood and they hope in about ten years time to be able to implant this and do away with the need for transplants. As transplants rarely happen because of lack of organs available this is a huge leap forward and offers us all hope. Let's hope their work continues at a fast pace. It is being developed here in Swansea - just google Haemair to read all about it - it is so exciting.

Dr Banks talks about oxygen

Dr Banks came to our last meeting on Friday 20th February and talked at length about oxygen. We all learned so much about how we should be using our oxygen. LTOT (long term oxygen therapy) is, surprisingly enough what it says. For people needing this, the more hours a day they can breathe in oxygen (at least 15 hours), the more benefit they will get. Ambulatory oxygen is, again, surprisingly exactly what it says. It must be breathed while you are active and on your feet - it's no good having a puff to recover once you have got breathless.
It's good to have this reinforced, and thank you Dr Banks for doing so.

Chris Mulholland, head of British Lung Foundation Wales was there as well and she talked to us about the work of BLF Wales, which leads me into our abseil event in April. Please support us and BLF Wales by going to the link to our justgiving appeal at the bottom of this page Thank you !

Abseil at Dinas Rock on 26th April 2009 - a charity event

The abseil will be run by Call of The Wild, a professional company, based locally in Seven Sisters, who have plenty of experience running these events. They are winners of the Welsh Tourist Board Team Building Company of the Year. They are generously giving their time and expertise free of charge which is a huge boost to our fundraising - our grateful thanks to them. They can be found at
www.corporate-training-events.co.uk tel 01639 700388

In our first year we raised just over £6,000. Last year we raised just over £7,000. What dizzy heights should we aim for this year ? the sky's the limit !
So far we have bought a spirometer and flutter devices for our local respiratory team at Cimla Hospital. With this and other money raised BLF Wales has been able to fund the first BLF nurse in Wales, start up BLF Active, an exercise programme to keep us fit and help us live longer and easier lives. BLF Wales also funds vital research into lung health such as the vital work going on in Swansea. See the link to Swansea Bay Breathe Easy - why not go along to the meeting in March to learn more about this exciting project ?
What are you waiting for ? Email me to get your entry form and join us for a great experience, a fun day out and help raise vital funds for local people living with lung conditions. Or check out our justgiving page at the bottom of this page and donate online.

A talk about being energy efficient

At our latest meeting on 16th January, Gareth Miles from NPower gave us quite a few useful tips about how switching off, using energy efficient light bulbs, draught proofing and insulating can save us pounds - maybe not enough for a trip abroad but certainly enough for a meal out or a day trip, so well worth taking the trouble.

British Lung Foundation Wales Annual Conference 2008

Five of our group were at the British Lung Foundation Conference, held yesterday, November 11th, in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. I always enjoy these gatherings, meeting people from other groups and making new friends. I was particularly happy to see Flo. who I met last summer in Aberaeron at the Welsh Cob Festival. We came face to face sporting our cannula's and said "Snap!" She told me she felt she was a long way from any Breathe Easy Group and felt very isolated out there in Pembrokeshire. And now she tells me she will be one of the founder members of a brand new group. Well done Flo, may your group flourish.

We started the day with a two minutes silence followed by various talks and discussions. Chris Mulholland, Head of BLF Wales, gave us an overview of the work done over the previous year and the aims for the coming year. The big project is the BLF Active Programme, aiming to get trained people to run exercise programmes accross Wales, available to all with lung conditions.

Then Dr Emrys Evans, Chairman of BLF Wales, talked to us about the benefits of exercise, improving muscle tone, feelgood factor, and the important fact that everyone can exercise, they just have to find their own level.

After that we split into two groups for workshops on getting the best from your doctor, Dr Noemi Eiser, Medical Director BLF, and your pharmacist, Andrew Evans, Pharmaceutical Adviser to Cardiff LHB. Always be prepared with questions you want the answer to and ask for written information to take away with you - they should all have the relevant BLF leaflet to hand. Use the medicines review offered by many pharmacies now. It's a new service which checks that we have the right medication - worth checking if you have been taking the same stuff for years. There may be something much better out there to try.

At lunch time we had a chance to mingle and chat and to see the exhibitions ranging from Pensions to Air Products and many things in between.

In the afternoon Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation talked about the need to continue raising money to fund the work of the charity - research grants, BLF nurses, Get Active programme, publishing information pamphlets, - I could go on for ever, so if any philanthropists are reading this blog, donations will be welcome at BLF Wales.

At the end of the day we had presentations and, as you can see, our group did rather well and I was thrilled to receive a personal award - many thanks to the group for nominating me and thanks to BLF Wales for these awards.