Penny Woods inspires us

Dr Penny Woods, chief exec of British Lung Foundation, talked to a group of Breathe Easy members about the way forward for our charity. She talked of putting the emphasis on research and that she dreams of a day when lung diseases can be cured. It's happening in other areas of medicine and one day it will happen for us too. Already we have seen improvement in quality of life through new approaches to dealing with lung conditions which are delivered through pulmonary rehab programs - pulmonary rehab is the best thing since sliced bread as far as I am concerned. It certainly showed me that life is worth living with COPD. Also there is great research going on, being funded by BLF, to ease the symptoms. In our case "every little helps" but for our grandchildren and their children we want lung disease to be a thing of the past. After all, a lot of it is caused by pollution such as smoking, asbestos, traffic, industrial etc, and all of these can be eradicated through smoking cessation, clean air programs and other means.
We were joined by members of other Breathe Easy groups from Gilfach Goch, Llanelli and Swansea - some old friends and a lot of new faces. It's always nice to see a crowd of people enjoying themselves.

 

Then came the surprise of the day, Breathe Easy Neath Valley was presented with the National Winner Award for an outstanding contribution to awareness raising and campaigning.

And then another pleasant surprise, I was awarded a Regional Award for outstanding service to BLF, Breathe Easy and the community.

 

 

How nice it is to get recognition for the work we do .

Bethan Jenkins and Tina Williams

It was so hot on Friday afternoon, but our meeting hall in Neath was a haven of cool breezes and shade - bliss ! - helped by large jugs of iced lemon drink, thoughtfully brought along by two of our members. They deserve a medal.

Tina talked about a new initiative, working with Swansea Football Club, to promote better physical and mental health, especially amongst young men, who are the group who seem to be affected most in the recession by these sorts of problems. Of course her work covers everyone who needs such help and advice.

Bethan, one of our Assembly Members, was very keen to follow up our concerns about hospital visiting. Services are to be centred, probably in five main hospitals along the M4 from Cardiff to Swansea and one in Merthyr. As each hospital specialises it means that patients will often be hospitalised further from their homes than is the case now. We brought up the point that officially hospital visiting is only in the evenings at most hospitals which will be almost impossible for some people, the elderly, disabled, people with youg children and so on. Public transport is pretty infrequent in a lot of these valleys. A spokesperson from a local health board said that next of kin can visit in the afternoons and they should be made aware of that, but it's not happening. So Bethan said she would look into it. It was brought up at a meeting of the CVS in Neath last week, so, hopefully we will get some clarification on the situation.

Aberavon Beach Festival

Oh boy, what a scorcher. I think the whole population of the area was out on the beach on Saturday and most of them came through our marquee. You can see from the picture how crowded it was and that continued almost non-stop from 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Loads of people took away information from our stand. One lady introduced herself to say she was organising a sponsored walk from Neath to Swansea to raise funds for BLF Wales. I wish her and all who take part every success.

It was a lovely, if exhausting day, and I almost sold out of dolls, making a fantastic £115.

Meet the Boss

Our new Chief Exec, Dr Penny Woods came to Sophia Gardens in Cardiff to meet with all the Breathe Easy group officers. Her first words were "call me Penny" so we shall.
Penny outlined the cuts we are going to have to make in the current financial climate, in order to ensure that our charity will continue to function in supporting all people in England, Scotland, Wales and N Ireland, who are living with lung disease.
So it gave us great pleasure to be able to present £3,317:00 to Patrick Flood-Page (chairman of BLF Wales) and Penny. As they say "Every little helps."

Healthy eating

We all know what we should eat, but how many of us stick to a really healthy diet ? Julie Davies told us all about the things we shouldn't eat - too much sugar, salt and fat and lots of other stuff - and all the things we should eat - such as fruit, vegetables, grains and seeds. I love all those good things but I like a lot of the bad things too.

I think the best message Julie had for us was to think back to what out parents and grandparents ate (our age group is 55+). People who lived through the war and had to cope with rationing and shortages rarely put on weight, let alone become obese. Meat was rationed so they only ate small portions. Many people had their own gardens and grew their own vegetables and fruits, so they were plentiful.

I am going to try, I really am but I know it will be difficult so I will try to make my binges few and far between. Then with my three visits to the gym a week I might manage to get rid of some of my middle age spread, if not all of it.

An honour

I was very proud last night to be presented with an award for volunteer of the year at Neath Port Talbot CVS. It was a lovely evening and wonderful to see so many young people being recognised for giving their time freely to help others.

 

Big Pit - Blaenavon

Yesterday, some of our group had a wonderful day out at the Big Pit in Blaenavon. For those of you who have never visited it's a must - please make the effort and go.

Three of us went down the coal mine and said what a great experience it was.

 

 The rest stayed on the surface, visited the pit head baths and looked at the museum on mining through the ages, ending with the controversial miner's strike which saw the end of coal mining in South Wales.

 

 

We finished our visit with lunch in the miner's canteen and a browse around the shop before we left to go home, tired and happy.