Health & Wellbeing

Staff and customers at Birmingham’s leading designer of clothing and accessories, Fat Face, are pulling out the stops to support the city’s John Taylor Hospice. The store team has already presented the hospice with a total of £906.61 and is aiming to increase this amount by taking part in a series of challenges. The initial donation was raised as part of a company-wide initiative to support local good causes to mark November’s Black Friday weekend.

Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Roadshow had a busy few days in Solihull’s Touchwood Shopping centre last week as the Dementia Community Indoor Stand had a presence in the shopping centre where it attracted a great deal of interest. The aim of the Roadshow was to raise awareness about dementia and provide support for those with queries. The prominent location of the Stand in the shopping centre means that it will have been seen by hundreds of people in Solihull and triggered many conversations about dementia. 

A growing number of Brummies are signing-up for a FREE health MOT that can identify the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. But thousands of men across the city who are eligible for an NHS Health Check  are still missing out, with figures showing women are more likely to accept the offer. Around 90,000 Brummies have attended an NHS Health Check in the last three years.

Heart surgery can be a daunting prospect, but a new website launched by Bupa and The Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) is designed to give peace of mind, with interviews with experts and people who have been through surgery themselves. The online hub has been developed for patients, families and carers and is relevant for all types of heart surgery, with videos of a surgeon, cardiothoracic nurse and patient following surgery all the way through from the first appointment to recovery.

In the average lifetime, we spend on average 24 years tucked-up in bed – often not getting a good night’s sleep. Yet Birmingham residents have admitted to putting more thought into new clothes, holidays, TVs, washing machines and even sofas than what they bed down on.

Patients and staff are helping to raise awareness of the “brilliant” care at Birmingham’s John Taylor Hospice by starring in posters across the city. Five people who the hospice cares for, their families and members of staff appear in a new  advertising campaign which launches Birmingham-wide this week. Day hospice visitor Cat Mackrill is among the models and says she was delighted to be asked to take part in the project.

Haringey residents who are over 65 have been urged to visit the gym for free. Older residents can use are able to use gyms (at Park Road, Tottenham Green and Broadwater Farm) for free in Haringey on weekdays between 9am-5pm. Free gym access is one of a number of initiatives that Haringey Council has Introduced to make Haringey a healthier place and increase the number of older residents involved in leisure activities.

New research has revealed that in the past year 32% of smokers in the West Midlands used an e-cigarette in an attempt to quit smoking. The Smoking Toolkit Study from University College London has also revealed that in 2015 the number of smokers in England who used an e-cigarette in an attempt to quit smoking has reached more than 1 million.

Adults in Wolverhampton – particularly those in middle age – are being encouraged to take control of their health in order to enjoy significant benefits, both now and in later life. The City of Wolverhampton Council is supporting the new One You campaign launched by Public Health England which seeks to help people avoid illness caused by modern day life.

As a new meningitis vaccination programme for infants continues, parents are being urged to know how to spot symptoms of the disease. The NHS MenB vaccination programme for infants was introduced last September, and will mean that by 2017 all children under the age of two in the UK will have been offered the vaccine. The vaccine is currently available for free to children born from 1 May 2015 onwards, with the first dose administered from two months of age.

TV funny-man James Corden, presenter Lorraine Kelly and comedian Jack Whitehall are just three of the unique breaths that make up a world-first charity music track and video released by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust as part of the launch of the charity’s new Life Unlimited Campaign.

Women are putting their health on hold because they’re too busy to take potentially life-threatening symptoms to the doctor, reveals new research released by charity Ovarian Cancer Action. More than a quarter of women (25.3%) say they prioritise work over going to see a doctor and more than a third (38%) say looking after their family takes precedence.

Canadians enduring long waiting periods for surgical and other advanced medical procedures now have a solution - in the sunny, warm Caribbean. Health City Cayman Islands, a world class hospital in the northwestern Caribbean, has opened an office in Canada to support Canadian medical practitioners who want to move their patients off long waiting lists for non-emergency procedures and improve their quality of life.

QEHB Charity has launched a £1 million appeal, with cancer charity Get-A-Head and the University of Birmingham, to fund a new programme giving cancer patients access to new drugs quicker than anywhere else in the country, through the reallocation of drugs originally created to treat other illnesses. Drug development through pharmaceutical companies using the conventional approaches can take up to 15 years before they reach patients, and have a 90% failure rate.

A new charity, which has been set up to help fund home adaptations for disabled children, has recently launched with the help of a £6,000 donation from ethical pet retailer, Pets Corner with a further pledge from the company to donate £5,000 per year. Sullivan’s Heroes is the result of months of work by Richard Smith – a long term supplier for Pets Corner - and his wife Fiona. 

A much-loved paediatric consultant at Birmingham Children’s Hospital has turned from a professional into a fundraising dad after his son was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. Barney Scholefield, who works in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, has more recently become a full-time bedside father to two-year-old Fergus after he was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer.