Newsletter
Extracts from the December 2004 Newsletter
Raffle Prizes
Paintings donated by Helena Anderson for a recent fund-raising raffle.
Opening Words
We are nearing the end of what has been a very busy year for the Group, with wrist scanning days, garden teas, a visit to a brewery and a quiz plus two dance evenings. There were also our regular Thursday evening meetings, when very many different people entertained or informed us.
Let’s hope next year is equally as busy. Already we’re planning another dance evening, a quiz and scanning day and I am confident Ken Eade has an interesting selection of guests to excite us on Thursdays at our Group meetings.
As we do not meet in December, I must take this opportunity to wish you all a pleasant Christmas and a peaceful New Year and hope to see you all again in January.
From the Chairman, John Fludgate
NOS Regional Day
As you will know, this Group is part of the National Osteoporosis Society, one of over 130 support groups across the UK. As such, we are encouraged to take part in training and ‘exchange of ideas’ days. One such happened on Saturday 16 October in Peterborough, and your Chairman, your Secretary and Treasurer attended.
This is always our opportunity to meet representatives from headquarters and also from other support groups throughout our region.
We heard from Andi Marsh and Lin Toulson about the changes in Bath (where NOS has its headquarters), and the serious matters for discussion mostly surrounding funding.
Low membership — a concern
NOS is most concerned about the low membership. It grew quickly in the first years, 1986 to 1989, then more slowly and now has been virtually static at 27,000 since 1998. This needs to be increased to give validity to the work the National Society is carrying out at national and international levels.
A ‘Groups Working Party’ has been established to discuss the way forward. This will feed into the 5 year plan for the Society. Under discussion are two ideas:
- Honorary (in other words, “free”) Membership, for committee members — to encourage more committee members to come forward, and to remain in post.
- Dual Membership of local groups and the National Society. This needs much more discussion and there will be further information in the Spring.
If you have any views, let the Secretary know and she will pass them on to the relevant representative for this area.
There have been many changes at headquarters. 65 staff reduced to 52, 8 departments into 6. The Senior Management Team is down from 8 to 6. There will be investment in Finance and Training and an emphasis on generating core funding. All these changes must have been very unsettling for those involved at Bath.
We are part of something very much bigger
The other good thing about these Regional Days, is that they are an opportunity to meet our colleagues from other support groups. It is easy to feel isolated and to forget that we are all part of something very much bigger than the individual groups.
Healthy Schools Initiative — Healthy Bones Packs
When talking to the Chairwoman of the Norwich Group, Ann Pulford, she told us that their Group had just bought 100 Healthy Bones Packs to distribute to Primary Schools in their area who were involved in the Healthy Schools Initiative. Norfolk County Council had given them the relevant list, but when she looked at it, several of the schools were in our area. She has sent them out with a covering letter, but nevertheless we will be following these up. We have sent Norwich a contribution to the postage — it seemed only fair.
The schools covered are:
- Anthony Curton
- Brancaster
- Marham Middle School
- Rudham
- Great Bircham
- Burnham Market
- Walpole Cross Keys
- Necton
- North Wootton
- Saint Michael’s
- Ten Mile Bank
- Watlington
- West Walton
- Howard
- and West Winch.
If you have any contacts with other schools that might be interested, please contact our Editorial Team on 01553 840764 or 01553 773309.
Working with Children & Young People
One of our aims for this year was to begin getting the ‘healthy bones’ message across to children. Ros Harre, our Education Advisor, is in charge of this project.
Our first outing was to North Wootton Brownies. These 7 and 8 year olds were very well informed and had obviously been learning at school about healthy bones and teeth, but we were able to reinforce the messages, telling them about ‘crumbly’ bones.
We used information from the Healthy Bones packs and handouts from the National Dairy Council. If anybody has contacts with other Brownie groups we would be glad to go to talk to them as well.
New Drugs — be first with the news
A new drug is to be licensed soon — Strontium Ranelate (we made mentioned of the research into this in our previous newsletter). For more information on this and many other new developments I would urge people to join the National Osteoporosis Society.
If you want to be first with the news and in a position to tell your own GP what is going on, then you really need to join NOS. Full contact details are on our Contact page.
You know it makes sense.
Wrist Scanning — Our Previous Free Session
You will all know by now that a DEXA scan produces a printout in which your bone density is compared to a reference range of young healthy adults with average bone density. The difference between your bone density and this average is then calculated and expressed in terms of ‘Standard Deviations’ — SD — and given as a ‘T score’.
A ‘Z score’ is also calculated. This is a comparison between your bone density and that of a reference range of people of your own age. Although this is not used to diagnose osteoporosis, it is useful sometimes in the assessment of treatments in older people or children, when a comparison with a young adult reference range may not be so relevant.
Our Hunstanton Scanning Day
This day in October 2004 was very successful. 35 people were scanned. 11 people were found to be osteoporotic, 9 osteopaenic and 15 normal. The venue was excellent — big enough for us to offer tea and cakes to those who had come early for their appointments. We also found that we sold some cards, and were given donations. Two pharmaceutical companies helped sponsor the event, Trinity and Aventis. This halved the cost for us.
Out of those scanned during the session, Tony Bennett (the Radiographer from the West Suffolk Hospital who does our scanning) remarked that he had seen both someone with the most severe osteoporosis and someone in her seventies with the bones of a 20 year old. Both ends of the scale.
The next scanning day will be held at the Healthy Living Centre, North Lynn, King’s Lynn, in April 2005. Already we have a waiting list. The arrangements have not been made yet, but already we have a donation of £250 from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. We also have quite a long waiting list. People are still very interested in taking the opportunity of having a free scan. This, we feel, helps prove the need for a DEXA scanner in our own area.
Support For Us
We have been contacted by the Discharge Liaison sisters at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn. They would like to undertake some fundraising for us. They too agree we need our own local scanning facility.
Mr Nick Packer, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the hospital, is carrying out an audit of the patients he sees who have osteoporosis or are at risk of the disease. We desperately need these figures to lend weight to our bid for the Primary Care Trust.
Harrison Holidays have again sponsored our advert in the “Good Causes” supplement in the Lynn News, published on 23 November 2004. They have also been collecting used printer cartridges for us. We have just sent off our second box to Reclaim IT. This money goes straight to the National Osteoporosis Society.
All this extra support is very encouraging.
Osteoporosis Nurse Initiative
If you remember, we supported these nurses a couple of years ago and a few local GP surgeries benefited from their help in highlighting, then suggesting, appropriate treatment for patients at risk of osteoporosis.
We now have some National feedback.
- The initiative started in 2001.
- There was an audit of female patients over the age of 75 years in individual GP practices.
- Over 17,000 patients were screened using a modified, validated fracture risk assessment tool (Black et al, 2001)
- 31% were identified at high risk.
The nurses are now looking at Residential and Nursing Care Homes. Our own Primary Care Trust has contacted them and they will be working in our area again. This will be a programme of education and audit aimed at reducing the incidence of osteoporotic fracture and falls in nursing and residential care homes.
Fundraising this past autumn
After a summer of outings and cream teas, autumn has seen the Group working hard again.
Dance with Peggy Spencer & Cy Payne | October 2004
October was the Dance Night time again at the Gaywood Community Centre. It was enjoyed greatly by those who attended. Unfortunately this time there were not enough people to give us a profit on the event. Perhaps the event came around too early in the season. We are planning another Dance just before Easter 2005; hopefully this will be better supported. There is certainly a buzz and interest again in Ballroom Dancing as enthusiasm mounts for the second series of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC 1 on Saturday evenings.
Charity Market Stall & Jumble Sale | October 2004
The Charity stall on the Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn, made £151 — not too bad. We were quite busy. However, we still had a quantity of goods that needed to be sold, so John and Edie decided to hold a Jumble Sale at the Methodist Hall, County Court Road, King’s Lynn on Saturday 30 October. This did not give much time for advertising. But quite a few people turned up. Thanks to Sally for doing the teas, again, and to Les selling cards, and with Florrie’s help a further £39 was raised.
That means John only has the best of the bric-a-brac saved for next year and Sally has her front room back.
The Eddie Seales Big Band Show | November 2004
Held in late November 2004 at the Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn, The Eddie Seales Big Band Show was our major fundraising event of the year.
We will include a full report of the show in the next issue of the Newsletter (Spring 2005).
Forthcoming Fundraising
Please check our Diary Dates page for all our meetings and events.
We will soon be enjoying a well-earned Christmas break, after a busy autumn. But rest assured that come the new year we will be organising and confirming the details of more fun fundraising events.
In the meantime, don’t forget our our January Social, an annual favourite and one you should be sure not to miss!
Other Recent Past Events We’ve Enjoyed…
Here are just a few of the handful of events we’ve organised and enjoyed recently.
Nostalgia Evening | August 2004
Using the skills of our own members, we had piano duets by Gordon and Les, some community singing, and then some fun quizzes set by John Fludgate. It was a hilarious evening and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended.
The History of Punch and Judy | September 2004
This was another evening in which we had as much entertainment as if we had been to a theatre for the evening. Mr Clarke proved to be a consummate performer. His tales of how he started as a youngster, the youngest Punch and Judy man in the country at the age of 12, and of how he went on to work in television on Muffin the Mule, to the present day, kept us laughing. He now makes puppets as well — he finished the evening with a full show, using puppets he made.
Citizen’s Advice Bureau | October 2004
Carol Hughes talked to the Group about the work of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. The aim of the CAB is to give sufficient advice and information to people so that they do not suffer because they are unaware of their rights and responsibilities. Also, where the CAB perceives an unjust ruling, they will lobby government for a change in the legislation.
The advice they give is free, confidential, independent and comprehensive. Carol asked if any of the Group would like to become volunteers. A person would be given 6 months training for one day a week, and, once trained, would be expected to give 6 hours a week, although not necessarily all on the same day.
If anyone reading this Newsletter is interested, we’re sure Carol would be glad to hear from you. You can reach her at the CAB, King’s Lynn, on 01553 774719.
And Finally…
A very Merry Christmas — seasonal good wishes from your Committee. We’re looking forward to a busy and fulfilling 2005. We hope to see you at as many events as possible in the new year — health and weather permitting!
