The Catwg Bellringers

The ladies of the Catwg Bellringers entertained us well at our Christmas meeting. We ate mince pies and sang carols, all very relaxed until they said "Right, your turn now," and handed the bells over to us. Shock, horror and much laughter. Well, we proceeded to do bellringing by numbers, and actually managed to produce some recogniseable tunes, and a bit of harmony, I am proud to say, once we had a bit of practice. Adrian Bailey and Kevin Sullivan, from British Lung Foundation Wales, joined us - thanks to Kevin for the photos, and the Catwg Bellringers for fun event.

An award to be proud of

Emrys Evans, Chairman of British Lung Foundation Wales, came to our December meeting to present the group with a certificate for Excellence in Fundraising. He joined us for tea, mince pies and a chat and talked to us about the importance of fundraising to enable British Lung Foundation Wales to expand it's work to make life easier for all people in Wales who are living with lung disease. Funds were raised throughout the year in various ways. We held our annual abseil event in April, which raised £5,000. We were left bequests and concerts were held in Port Talbot to raise money for the group. We also had a donation from the Inner Wheel group in Neath. Awareness Days, collecting tins and sales of craftwork all contribute to the cause.

Christmas Dinner

We all met at lunchtime last Wednesday, at the Dyffryn Arms, Bryncoch, for a lovely Christmas lunch. It was great to all be together for a purely social occasion - not that our monthly meetings aren't social events as well as covering some of the more serious aspects. It was the first of our festive events, the next being the Catwg bell ringers, with mince pies and wine.

Legal Details

At our last Breathe Easy meeting on Friday, Janelle and Andrew, from a local legal partnership, talked to us about the many complexities of Living Wills, Power of Attorney and the ever vexing question of who pays for long term care, if and when it is needed. There was an awful lot to take in, all in one go, but if the exchequer is not to gain by getting all your wordly goods, it's something we all have to think about, sooner rather than later.

Trip to the Brecon Canal

On 22nd Septemebr a lot of us joined other Breathe Easy groups for a lovely afternoon, with cream tea, on a canal barge. We joined the barge at the basin in Brecon and then floated gently to the aqueduct, where we could all get out to enjoy the view. And then back we went to Brecon - a lovely peaceful and enjoyable way to spend a day.

Palliative Care and Publicity

Our respiratory nurse, Chris Burrows, gave us a very informative talk about what can be a very emotive subject. Not many of us want to think about end of life, but it is going to happen to all of us, with or without lung disease. We heard about the work of the community nurses, the respiratory team, our GP's, the hospital and hospice care. This is a service which is growing and expanding all the time which is very reassuring.




She and Katrina also joined us to for photographs for the press with the spirometer, smokerlyser and flutter devices that we were able to buy for the team with the money raised from our annual abseil event. These items cost £2,864. Also at todays meeting we were able to give British Lung Foundation Wales a cheque for £3,000 to help them in their work for all people in Wales with a lung condition. So I think we can all be very proud of ourselves to have done so much and to have had so much fun doing it

The Kennedys

Janet John was a mine of information about the goings on in the Kennedy family - they are a soap opera on their own.
We held our AGM and reported a successful year, the group is growing and we were successful in raising over £5,000 from our abseil event and various donations. We bought equipment for the respiratory team at Cimla Hospital, namely a spirometer, a smokaliser and some flutter devices. It was nice to be able to send cheques to both Swansea Bay and Merthyr Tydfil Breathe Easy groups - money raised by them in taking part in our abseil event back in April.