Ystradgynlais Christmas Fair

 

We were up early, in the dark, on a cold and frosty morning, to get into the hall in time to get a good table position. Our dolls sold well - £70.00 taken for our Breathe Easy group which makes all the work involved worthwhile.

Now I need to make lots more Welsh ladies, they are always the first to go, but I am going to have a night off knitting tonight and give my fingers a rest.

World COPD Day - 20th November 2013

COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - is a rotten thing to have. It can be debilitating, isolating and cause anxiety and depression as well as breathlessness and nasty chest infections. But it doesn't have to be all gloom and doom. This week there is lots of information out there to support and help. Our Awareness Stand is in the Baglan Resource Centre, near Aberavon Beach.

Come and see us, find out about our Breathe Easy group which meets once a month in the Owain Glyndwr Community Centre in Neath. Being a member of a support group solves many of the problems associated with chronic conditions. We welcome all people with lung conditions and their carers and support each other through good times and bad.

We meet regularly for lunch, have days out and fundraise on a grand scale to help pay for research into lung disease and to support the work of British Lung Foundation.



Our carers go coal mining.

Campaigning at the Welsh Assembly



Celebrating Christmas

At the National Gardens

Our annual abseil fundraising event

A brave abseiler

Monday lunches

For the last two years we have been meeting for lunch, every first Monday in the month, at various pubs in the area. We have a lovely choice of locations from the coast to forest and waterfall country.
This month the lunch was in memory of our friend and former chairman, Helen, who sadly passed away earlier this year. She had always enjoyed these lunch gatherings and treated our group to this occasion.

 

Helen, we remember you with fondness and memories of much laughter. You always could see the silly side of things.

COPD Team report

Chris Burrows and Jo Mort from the COPD Team came to report on progress over the last year. Fiona Reynolds talked earlier in the year about including new members into the team and, after a few setbacks and illnesses, getting the service back up to what it was a couple of years ago.
Chris and Jo were able to report that two more respiratory nurses have joined the team and that a Health Care Support Worker will be added too. Dr Martin Ebejer is now the clinical lead.
Our physiotherapist is leaving and now all we need is to appoint someone else into her post in order to keep the excellent pulmonary rehab courses running.
We also talked about hospital visiting. Many close relatives don't realise that they can visit in the afternoons. Notices in ABMU hospitals state that visiting hours are in the evenings in some wards, which include the ones we use. It should be made clear to relatives when people are admitted that they can visit in the afternoons. People in hospital with respiratory conditions are often worn out and asleep by 6.30, so an evening visit is pretty pointless and distressing too.

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.