Health & Wellbeing

A canine-crazy Cannock couple has embarked on a 10-week cycling challenge with their two-year-old pup in a bid to raise £10,000 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s Star Appeal. Richard Buka and Holly Necchi are setting off on Barney’s Big Bike Ride – a 2,000 mile fundraiser from the Arctic Circle to the Alps with Barney their King Charles Cavalier-Bichon Frise aboard his very own dog trailer.

Over half of people in the West Midlands are putting off seeking a dementia diagnosis for up to a year or more a study carried out by Alzheimer’s Society has found. Dementia is the most feared health condition in the UK, perhaps explaining also why nearly two-thirds of people in the West Midlands surveyed felt a diagnosis would mean their life was over.

Broadcaster Adrian Chiles and former footballer and blood cancer survivor Geoff Thomas joined patients, nurses, clinicians, fundraisers and major local businessmen in celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Centre for Clinical Haematology (CCH) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.   Blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia helps fund the CCH and has used this milestone as a springboard for its £3million capital fundraising campaign to help establish the Birmingham Institute of Haematology (BIH).

Cafés across Wolverhampton are serving up help, support and of course a cuppa or two for people living with dementia and their carers – including two during this year’s Dementia Awareness Week. The regular cafés enable people to share their experiences of dementia and find out more about the services available to them in the city. They are run by the Alzheimer's Society in partnership with the City of Wolverhampton Council.

Like many of your readers, I’ve had close family and friends affected by breast cancer. That is why I’m encouraging everyone to take a step forward for women with breast cancer this summer and sign up to a Pink Ribbonwalk to raise vital funds for leading charity Breast Cancer Care.

Clarke Willmott LLP, which has offices in Birmingham, has become a formal corporate supporter of the Encephalitis Society, which raises awareness of the condition. Whilst Alzheimer’s and meningitis justifiably receive significant amounts of media attention, encephalitis is an illness much less in the public spot light. With up to 6,000 cases of encephalitis in the UK each year and hundreds of thousands more worldwide, the lack of public awareness of the condition is perhaps surprising.

More than just a fad diet, eating gluten free is in fact vital to individuals suffering from a condition called coeliac disease. A lifelong autoimmune disease in which the small intestine reacts with hypersensitivity to gluten, this reaction leads to difficulty in digesting food. According to Coeliac.org.uk, this disease is affecting approximately 1 in 100 people with over 80% of this number remaining undiagnosed.

People across Wolverhampton are being encouraged to don Denim for Dementia and raise vital funds for the Alzheimer's Society. Schools, workplaces and families are being urged to wear items of denim during this year's Dementia Awareness Week, which runs from 15-21 May, 2016. The City of Wolverhampton Council is among those taking part, and will be asking staff to don denim on Wednesday 18 May in return for a donation to the Wolverhampton branch of the charity.

QEHB Charity will hold its third annual free Community Fun Day on Sunday 29 May, in celebration of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. The day will be returning to the fantastic hosts of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, based at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham.  It is set to be a huge event, with exciting fairground rides, food and craft stalls, a spectacular parachute performance from the Red Devils, a challenging military assault course, a vintage car display, and a T20 cricket match between the tri-service military cricket team and the Warwickshire Legends.

People are being encouraged to become a Dementia Friend as Wolverhampton prepares to mark Dementia Awareness Week, which runs from Sunday 15 May to Saturday 21 May, 2016. The Dementia Friends programme, run by the Alzheimer’s Society, is the biggest ever initiative to alter people’s perceptions of dementia. It aims to get people change the way they think, talk and act about the condition by learning more dementia and the small ways they can help someone living with it.

Death is often a taboo subject but for the first time a group of local citizens, community organisations, undertakers, doctors and hospices has joined forces to raise awareness about the importance of talking about dying, death and bereavement. Under the name BrumYODO (giving a local spin to the national Dying Matters coalition strapline ‘You only die once’) the community collective aims to positively change attitudes and behaviours around talking about and planning for death, and the need for good end of life care for all.

With local and national elections just around the corner, physiotherapists have a ‘doorstep challenge’ for candidates seeking their vote. Candidates who unsuspectingly knock on the door of a physiotherapist will be asked to commit, if elected, to campaign for changes which are key to delivering better access to physiotherapy in their local area.

A groundbreaking partnership launched to help Birmingham's growing army of carers has won national recognition at the Third Sector 2016 Business Charity Awards. Forward Carers was commended for the work of Birmingham Carers Hub - an innovative service which offers thousands of family carers access to free support, emergency aid, respite breaks, essential training and wellbeing events.

Victoria Rawnsley from Great Barr is on her third visit to John Taylor Hospice after meeting the In-Patient Unit team for the first time in January. The 45-year-old had been feeling really low and wasn’t sure what to expect. By the time she went home, Victoria said her mood had lifted considerably and she felt more confident.

Wolverhampton will be marking Dementia Awareness Week with events and activities for people with dementia and their carers – from information and advice sessions to a charity football match at Molineux Stadium. The Alzheimer's Society is staging Dementia Awareness Week from Sunday 15 May to Saturday 21 May, 2016.