Newsletter
News Update
Awards for All Award | July 2005
Four more Osteoporosis Roadshows
…thanks to a lottery grant of £2162 awarded to our Group.
At our most recent Group meeting we welcomed the Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayoress of King’s Lynn, David and Sheila Johnson, who presented us with an Award from the Awards for All Lottery Fund (Eastern England) of £2162. This will fund publicity, venue hire, travel and subsistence for four more Osteoporosis Roadshows in West Norfolk.
Our president, Peggy Spencer MBE accepted the Award on behalf of the Group, saying how excited the Group was to receive this money that would allow them to increase awareness of osteoporosis in the surrounding area.
The four roadshows will follow a similar format to the one held in March in Hunstanton. As before, there will be speakers to explain the nature of osteoporosis, causes and treatments, interviews with people living with osteoporosis — how to cope on a day-to-day basis — a dietitian talking about the importance of diet, and we hope to have the Active for Life Exercise Group demonstrating exercises suitable for people who have osteoporosis. There will also be stalls giving plenty of information, and we hope, an osteopath, aromatherapist and reflexologist.
The Group will also be funding some scanning on these days. The first one will take place in the WI Hall, Alexandra Road, Wisbech on Saturday 24 September 2005. We are already making a list of people interested in being scanned both then and at the subsequent roadshows to be held in Downham Market, Swaffham and Burnham Market, although no firm arrangements have been made for these last three.
Extracts from the June 2005 Newsletter
Opening Words
Here comes Summer!? At least that’s what “they” say and chronologically its true but, looking out of the window, I’m not sure.
We are going to be busy this Summer, with the Sandringham Flower Show and another fundraising and promotional event on Tuesday Market Place as extras to our usual programme. If you would like to help please let me, or Edie, know.
Also if you have any books, records or bric-a-brac available that we can sell, please contact us.
I look forward to seeing many of you on the afternoon of Sunday 19 June for tea and cakes, plus the usual stalls. If you would like a lift, please tell a member of the Committee well in advance.
We have some really good speakers for you this quarter as well and we are continuing to forge links with the local primary schools. If you can help in any way with this, please speak to me, or Ros Harre.
Enjoy the Summer and try to make time for some relaxation as well!
From the Chairman, John Fludgate
Osteoporotic & Osteopenic
People have asked for another reminder of the definition of osteoporotic and osteopenic, and the differences between the two. If you are osteoporotic it means you have osteoporosis, established usually by DEXA scan. If you are osteopenic it means that you are borderline.
Scanning days (limited places available)
Our scanning day held at the Healthy Living Centre, North Lynn on 23 April 2005 was running extremely smoothly in the morning, but unfortunately Tony Bennett then had problems with his computer. The afternoon appointments were disrupted and people who were already on their way or who had arrived for appointments had to be told they could not be scanned.
Another day has been arranged for Saturday 2 July 2005 at the St James House Surgery, County Court Road, King’s Lynn. The people who already had appointments will be seen first, of course, but this does leave some room for extra people to be scanned.
Several people who have heard about this have already asked for appointments, leaving only a few appointment slots not filled.
Peripheral scanning
- A wrist scanner is a screening device, more effective than a health questionnaire
- It exposes you to 300 times less radiation than a full DEXA scan
- The scientific definition of T scores and Z scores that you will be given is that they are Standard Deviations (SD) from the norm
- In this case the T score is the number of standard deviations away from a large database of untreated pre-menopausal women. The Z score uses the expected bone mineral density (BMD) for age and calculates the deviation from that. Hence women in the 25-50 age group will have identical T and Z scores
- If the T score is between
- 0 and -1 SD = normal
- -1 and -2.5 SD = osteopenic
- below -2.5 SD = osteoporotic
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Clinical Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis (1999), recommend that bone density measurements should be available to individuals at high risk of osteoporosis, when results may influence the doctor’s decision regarding treatment. That is why our Group is working so hard to improve the chances of getting local DEXA scanning facilities.
Hunstanton Roadshow Report
Osteoporosis Roadshow Hunstanton
Stay tuned for hopefully more roadshows this year.
This first Roadshow, held on Saturday 12 March 2005, in the Hunstanton Methodist Hall, was well received.
Quite a few people attended. The Active for Life exercise group worked extremely hard giving three 45-minute displays and our special thanks go to them. It was also interesting to hear three people interviewed, telling people about their experiences of living with osteoporosis.
The Senior Dietician from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kathryn Richardson, opted to use a fun quiz to test the audience’s knowledge of osteoporosis — and found some of us lacking.
Many thanks also go to those manning stalls, and making and serving tea and cakes.
With regard to future roadshows, we have received acknowledgement of our completed forms but will not know if the Group has been allotted a Lottery Grant till early June 2005. If we have been successful then arrangements will be made quickly for another four similar events.
Grants
As well as applying for help with funding our Osteoporosis Roadshows, we decided to look at sponsorship for our minibus service, the costs of which are rising as the cost of petrol rises, and for the Newsletter, to allow us to distribute a free copy to each GP practice.
So far, we have been successful in obtaining £250 from the Paul Bassham Trust towards running the minibus. We are very grateful for this. Help with running what we now consider to be our core services, allows more of the funds we raise to go towards improved local services.
We are continuing to talk to the Primary Care Trust and hope this will lead to the employment of an osteoporosis nurse.
Year of the Volunteer
The Group is very grateful to Chris Hornby of the Citizen Newspaper. Again he has supported us well, not only by giving very good coverage of the recent Roadshow but also by writing a main article on our Group in March, for the Year of the Volunteer.
If anyone missed the articles and would like to see exactly what was written, we do keep a scrapbook and would be happy to send a copy if you let us know.
Forthcoming Events & Plans
See our Diary Dates for more.
Austin Pearce
Detail from a watercolour
by Austin Pearce.
Many thanks to Austin again, he has donated one of his paintings to be raffled in aid of the Osteoporosis Group. The raffle took place at the preview to his exhibition and £70 was raised. The exhibition at Henderson Art & Framing, St Faith’s Drive, Gaywood, King’s Lynn, runs until 4 June 2005. Well worth a visit.
S.S. Enterprise
Whilst selling raffle tickets at Henderson’s we noticed the following information and thought members might be interested. S.S. Enterprise is run by Sue Henderson and Sue Barnett. They run ‘outings’ for want of a better word, mainly to London to see some of the wonderful shows on offer there, but also a painting and sketching day with Helena Anderson. Sue Barnett has many contacts in London and this means she is able to arrange backstage visits and in most cases, add something special, to the event.
Anybody on their own and wanting to go to London or anywhere else for a show, can stay with the group rather than finding their way around London alone. If you want any more information, contact Sue Barnett. Telephone 01485 542523.
Here are some examples of what S.S. Enterprise has in store:
- Saturday 18 June 2005, Choice of Musicals (check for details). Could be:
- The Producers
- Phantom of the Opera
- Something else
- Thursday 14 July 2005, Tale of Two Cities Tour, including:
- London/Paris theme for France’s Bastille Day
- French cuisine at Luxury Hotel
- Greenwich visit to the Painted Hall (used for the lying in state of Admiral Lord Nelson)
- Leisure time at Chelsea Harbour.
- Sunday 18 September 2005, Serendipity Tour, including:
- Trip to Belton House, Seventeenth Century house at Grantham
- Stunning interiors, ornate Italian and Dutch gardens AND painting and sketching with Helena Anderson
- Saturday 15 October 2005, Guys and Dolls:
- With film star Ewan McGregor
- Also possibly Mary Poppins or Billy Elliot
- Sunday 20 November 2005, Classical Spectacular, including:
- Royal Albert Hall — Last Night of the Proms style
- Followed by Dinner
- Thursday 8 December 2005, Christmas Snowball
- West End shopping trip
- Christmas Luncheon with shopping time
- Choice of West End musical
It would be good to team up with this other group for an outing this year perhaps, rather than organising our own.
Clinimatrix
This firm, who are carrying out a survey of bisphosphonate users, has contacted our Group. We have checked with headquarters and they are happy for us to take part. This could provide participants with a £10 voucher and also £10 for the Group. If any of our readers would like to take part please contact Edie (01553 773309).
Here is an extract from their communication:
I am writing to ask you to participate in a study of women’s experience in the treatment of osteoporosis. The study is on behalf of a pharmaceutical company to help them understand what women truly think and feel about bisphosphonate therapy.
If you are taking, or have taken, a bisphosphonate medication such as Actonel, Fosamax or Didronel, we would very much like to hear your experience…
You would not need to take or change any medications, all we ask is that you take a telephone call from a researcher and answer a series of questions about your condition and the medication or treatments you take or have taken.
The questionnaire will take about 20 minutes and you will receive a voucher for £10 as a thank-you for completing the interview.
Clinimatrix Spokesperson
To avoid our passing on your information to another party, we need to know if you are interested and then we can forward the letters to you. It is then up to you to decide if you would like to continue.
Clinimatrix found our name through our website and have contacted all the other similar NOS support groups.
GAWDs Award Nomination
The Guild of Accessible Web Designers, or GAWDs, is quite a well-known group (in the web design world) that promotes websites which are ‘accessible’ to all users, including blind and vision-impaired users and others who use special software or equipment to access the Internet.
We were nominated for the Website of the Month Award for March 2005 and in the end were voted second behind the WWF (Global Conservation Organisation) products and gifts website (the winner), and in front of the BBC Red Nose Day website (that came third).
This is perhaps rather elitist, but every accolade is gratefully accepted. Well done Martin (our web master) for keeping our website constantly updated and up there with the best.
If you’re interested, you can read more about our website’s accessibility.
We are getting more requests for information electronically and most business people use email rather than Royal Mail.
Healthy Bones Packs
Thanks to the generosity of the Norwich Osteoporosis Group, we have been given 9 extra copies of the Healthy Bones packs produced by the NOS. These, as you know, give information targeted especially at infant and junior school children. Your Committee members have been distributing them to local schools where they have a contact.
By doing this we hope we have encouraged these schools to use the packs. We are thinking of introducing the idea of a painting competition in the Autumn. Paintings could be displayed at Henderson Art and Framing, Gaywood, King’s Lynn, where local artist Helena Anderson would judge them.
More details on these plans in the next issue.
Recent Past Events We’ve Enjoyed…
Here are just a few of the handful of events we’ve organised and enjoyed recently.
The King’s Lynn Whalers | February 2005
Unfortunately due to bad weather this meeting had to be cancelled. The first time we have had to do this. We hope to hear David Andrews talking about the King’s Lynn Whalers in the autumn.
Cookery Demonstration | March 2005
Jeanette Paul, a Home Economics teacher from Hammond High School, Swaffham, came to give us a cookery demonstration, illustrating how versatile and economical a microwave is. The associated cooking utensils, being lightweight, are ideal for people who have a problem with lifting heavy saucepans.
She showed us how to bone a chicken and stuff it with a variety of fillings, turning something fairly ordinary into a dinner-party special. This does need a combination microwave oven.
Some of her recipes are featured in our latest Newsletter (June 2005). It was also interesting to hear Jeanette talking about how she encourages her teenage students to cook and the fact that everything has to be completed within one hour, including the clearing and washing-up. Quite a challenge!
Aloe Vera | April 2005
Matthew Silcock from Forever Living Products talked about the benefits of Aloe Vera and other natural products.
The healing properties of Aloe Vera are well known. It has 8 of the 9 essential amino acids the body needs but does not produce on its own.
Matthew also told us about Multi-Maca — a Peruvian herb for increased energy and a reduction in stress, Garlic-Thyme, B-12 and folic acid and Bee Pollen. This was a very interesting talk, with the added advantage of our being able to order items from him.
Matthew also agreed to give the Group 20% of his sales when working with us. He has already given us a donation from when he had a stall at our Hunstanton Roadshow.
