Newsletter
Extracts from the December 2008 Newsletter
Opening Words from the Chairperson
Many Thanks
Our president Peggy Spencer would like to thank everybody who has sent cards and flowers. They have been wonderful and she has found them a great encouragement.
Hi Everyone.
Welcome to the cold weather!
It was so good to see Peggy back with us last month. She has been poorly this year. Well done Peggy.
We will be having a Christmas tree for osteoporosis at St John’s Church this year. Hope you will go along to visit and support the event.
Edie and I attended the Birmingham Groups Conference. This was a busy two days but enjoyable and informative.
Thank you to the Committee for all the hard work undertaken this year, also to everyone who has helped in any way.
I have focussed on membership over the last two years. We have had good interest and a few new members. Welcome to all of them.
Fundraising this year has been excellent and in September we handed over £2,000 to Louise Sullivan, our NOS Development Manager, for use by headquarters for research. I have always sponsored research, as we are hoping for new things and more understanding of the causes of the condition in the future.
This being the last Newsletter of the year, I wish you all a Happy Christmas and Healthy New Year. I look forward to seeing you all in January.
Best wishes.
From our Chairperson, Jill Fysh
Boogie for Your Bones
Many of you who watch Strictly Come Dancing will know Craig Revel Horwood. The NOS joined forces with Craig and with one of the Society’s Patrons, Dr Miriam Stoppard, to offer dance schools across the UK an opportunity to perform in front of an array of well known celebrities at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
The event took place on World Osteoporosis Day, 20th October. You can see Craig demonstrating his Dance Plan by following the links from the NOS home page.
We know dancing is a great weight-bearing exercise and the plan looks great fun.
Membership
We have been very happy to welcome quite a few new members this year, and hope they are enjoying the company and finding the information we distribute helpful.
If anybody knows of someone else who would like to attend, just bring them along with you. A growing membership means a strong, lively group.
If anyone would like a lift, talk to your committee. Almost certainly someone can help. Also we are eager to expand our taxi/minibus service as we have been given specific funding for this by the Sandringham Estate Cottage Horticultural Society Trust (which organises and runs the Sandringham Flower Show).
NOS Membership
The reduced joining fee for membership of NOS (£10 instead of the usual £15) will continue until the end of 2008. If you are interested, hurry, don’t miss this opportunity.
Lesley Millard – new Education Officer
We are glad to welcome Lesley Millard to HQ at Camerton. It will be good to see her developing ways of working with children and young people.
Lesley has worked in education ever since qualifying some 30 years ago. She has taught primary school, become head teacher, then moved to adult education and worked for the local authority on a consultancy basis.
She will be reviewing current resources and updating them to bring them in line with the National Curriculum and more recent initiatives.
Lesley has visited King’s Lynn and met your committee. We were particularly eager to talk to her as we will be working with the College of West Anglia next year looking to develop posters targeting the 18 to 35 age group.
Ros Harre will be leading this work as she does with the schools and will be able to give an update on progress in spring 2009.
With regard to the schools, Jill Fysh and Ros have just been to the Ethel Tipple School to give out prizes and certificates to the children involved in this year’s Art Challenge. They were very impressed with the high standard of work submitted.
Groups & Volunteers Forum
It seems probable that this Forum will be disbanded after one more meeting in January 2009 to develop into a series of Regional Forums. This is to encourage more involvement from groups and volunteers and cut down on the distance travelled.
It will mean more work for Regional Development Managers (DMs), but it is hoped each DM will have an assistant to help administer the new way of working.
Each region will host a volunteer forum. A full set of minutes will be made available to the Members Board, and a direct report made to the Board of Trustees by the Members Board Chairman. Forum Chairmen will be invited to attend the Members Board on a rotational basis to ensure continuing representation of volunteer issues and the terms of reference will remain the same.
I look forward to seeing how this idea is developed.
Edith Finbow, Secretary
Groups & Volunteers Forum, Birmingham, 23rd October 2008
Jill Fysh and I attended this and had the opportunity to speak about the Study Day for Healthcare Professionals that we held in February this year.
The Conference is always a good opportunity to meet and compare notes with groups from all round the country and staff from Camerton and a reminder that we are not just working away on our own in Norfolk but are part of a vibrant countrywide organisation.
This year as well, we were able to meet some of the individual volunteers and to see Bob Rees again, the ‘Ambassador’ that everyone met at our February meeting.
Claire Severgnini spoke about the Society’s plans for the next five years and Professor Reid told the Conference about newer treatments for osteoporosis. We heard about finances, education, the new volunteers and other groups told delegates about the way they were working.
Some really good presentations and excellent organisation made the whole day really enjoyable.
Edith Finbow, Secretary
Forthcoming Fund-raising Events
See our Diary Dates for a comprehensive list.
All group meetings are held at the London Road Methodist Hall, County Court Road, King’s Lynn, and start at 7.30 PM, unless otherwise stated (map and directions). Everyone is welcome. Entry is free for members, and costs £1.50 for visitors.
Recent Group Events
September 2008
Elizabeth Kendall, Chairwoman of Gardening for Disabilities (Norfolk) came to talk to the Group about different ways of gardening, making use of specialist tools to make life easier.
This group was established in 1994 to encourage, support and enable people who, for various reasons, find many gardening activities difficult or beyond their reach.
Many of her listeners could identify with the problems she talked about – for instance, difficulty in bending, pruning when trees are too tall, lifting heavy weights and so on.
She brought with her an amazing number of tools and explained how some of these very well thought-out aids could help in almost every circumstance.
Some tools particularly impressed us, e.g. the long reach cutter (£49.99). This has a rotating head, and is made of lightweight aluminium,. It eliminates the need to stand on steps or ladders when cutting out-of-reach. Darlac Snappers (from £24.95) again have a swivel head, and can be used single handed. The snappers hold the pruned branch to save bending to pick up all the bits. There was also a hanging basket device to make watering easier.
So many good ideas – too many to list. If you would like a copy of the catalogue and prices, please contact Edith Finbow.
October 2008
How wonderful to see Peggy Spencer back with us again. She has not been well for most of the year, but is back and in good form.
She came to talk to us about dancing and to encourage members to become ‘armchair judges’ when watching Strictly Come Dancing.
She brought two friends with her, Ann and Edward Boyd-Tuck. They demonstrated the dances beautifully and then showed the possible faults which we tried to remember, ready for Saturday night and watching the programme on television.
Peggy started by telling members a little of the history of dance from standing in a circle on the village green to the present day when we are impressed with the energy and dedication of modern professional dancers. We now know about posture, level elbows, differences between the dances and some of what the judges are looking for in each dance.
A very entertaining evening.
