Health & Wellbeing

A 13-year-old Aston Villa fan who survived a life-threatening immune disorder met midfielder Jacob Ramsey for a new plasma donation NHS campaign video release. Season ticket holder Luca Bradley met Jacob, one of his heroes, at Birmingham plasma donor centre, and even had a kickaround in the street.

Luca, from Sutton Coldfield, had myasthenia gravis, which can stop people being able to swallow or breathe and recovered partly thanks to medicine made from plasma. NHS Blood and Transplant filmed the meeting for a drive to recruit more than 1,000 new donors to the plasma donor centre in Birmingham’s New Street.

Today (May 15) marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, the UK’s national week to raise awareness of mental health – and Wolverhampton residents are being encouraged to get involved. A host of events are taking place across the city over the next few days, with people invited to find out about the support available locally for those who are experiencing anxiety – the theme for this year's campaign – or who have any other concerns about their mental health and wellbeing. 

Dream Challenges has launched its 2024 Ride the Night event – the UK's biggest all-women cycling event – following the wildly successful 2023 iteration that took place recently on 29th April. Next year's Ride the Night in London will be the company's 10th and it will be held on Saturday 4th May, during which over one thousand women will unite and cycle 50km or 100km through London overnight for people facing cancer.

Sports presenter and Olympic gold medal-winning heptathlete, Dame Denise Lewis DBE, attended Dream Challenges' 2023 Ride the Night and described it as an “inspiring” event to be part of. She said: “Ride the Night is such a fabulous event. I had the pleasure of taking part this year, and the atmosphere was incredible!

Volunteers Nick and Phillip were on hand to support Health and Wellbeing Champion Lead, Kimberley Linyard-Tough, when she needed help running a busy stall at a conference attended by over 400 staff. Kimberley reached out to the Volunteering Team as she needed help in providing an expansive range of information on improving and maintaining staff wellbeing.

Parents are being urged to check children are up to date with their MMR vaccinations, as data published by UKHSA shows the number of measles cases so far in 2023 is already approaching the figure for the whole of 2022.

Between 1 January and 20 April this year there have been 49 cases of measles compared to 54 cases in the whole of 2022. Most of the cases have been in London although there have been cases picked up across the country and some are linked to travel abroad.

Following the results of the donanemab phase 3 data, Dr Richard Oakley, Associate Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “After 20 years with no new Alzheimer's drugs, we now have two potential new drugs in just twelve months – and for the first time, drugs that seem to slow the progression of disease. This could be the beginning of the end of Alzheimer’s disease.   

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica. While the virus had claimed just a few hundred lives by that time, the pandemic declaration resulted in unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions on movement and commerce, causing economic contractions that are still being felt.

A dance class in Pune city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra aims to make a difference to the lives of elderly people with Parkinson's disease. It was started in 2009 by Hrishikesh Pawar, a dance teacher, who says his students dance "only for joy" in these classes.

Northamptonshire based dementia campaigner Pete Middleton has been awarded the prestigious Coronation Champion title by the Royal Voluntary Service. Five hundred volunteers were selected from 5,000 nominations to become the nation’s Coronation Champions. The awards were designed by Her Majesty The Queen Consort, as she and His Majesty The King were keen for the Coronation to be used to recognise and reward those who go that extra mile in their communities.

The youngest and oldest active plasma donors at Birmingham Donor Centre people are urging people to register and give it a go.

They’re supporting the first ever NHS Plasma Donation Week [started w/c April 24], launched to boost donor numbers since donation restarted two years ago. Alice Stannard, aged 17 and four months, is the youngest person to donate plasma at Birmingham’s donor centre during 2023.

The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, a West Midlands-based charity which helps thousands of people across the UK each year and offers a range of services for people struggling with their emotional health and wellbeing is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Established in 1973 in Sandwell as a charity originally affiliated to Mind, Kaleidoscope Plus Group have five decades of experience in providing mental health support to thousands of people across the UK.

A high number of young people in England - about 170,000 aged 16 to 24 - unknowingly have risky high blood pressure, experts are warning.

That is about five in 100 young men and one in 100 young women, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Although it may not cause symptoms or problems to begin with, it puts extra strain on the heart and blood vessels.

To coincide with Earth Month, end of life charity Marie Curie has installed electric vehicle charging points at its nine UK hospices, including its Hospice in Solihull, West Midlands.

The project, which was partly funded by Arnold Clark who has supported the charity for several years, will enable visitors, patients, and staff at the hospices to charge their electric cars whilst working or visiting. The initiative was made as part of the charity’s sustainability plan. Marie Curie has committed to follow in the footsteps of the NHS and reach Net Zero emissions by 2050 (2045 in Scotland).

A care home in Solihull made a resident’s wish to attend the Pride of Longbridge car show come true.

When lifelong car enthusiast, Bob Guest aged 97, a resident at Care UK’s Blossomfield Grange, on Worcester Way, told team members he wanted to go to a car show – and the team quickly organised a special visit to a local event to make his wish come true. As part of the wishing tree initiative, the team at Blossomfield Grange encourage residents to submit wishes, no matter how big or small, whether they’re related to something they’ve never been able to do, or something they’d like to do again.

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre’s Remy Lloyd has been announced as a finalist in in the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Hero Awards, which are held at Birmingham’s Grand Hotel on Friday 28 April.

Remy, who is the Outreach Manager for Access & Inclusion has been nominated by Grand Theatre Memory Café users for her work supporting those living with Dementia in the multiple services that the Grand Theatre offers, both on site and within the community. In 2019 she developed a fortnightly dementia café with a theatrical twist.

With over 11,900 people living with dementia in Birmingham, many of whom are in relationships, Alzheimer’s Society has issued some relationship guidance to help affected couples better maintain their relationship following the charities recently launched ‘Ultimate Vow’ campaign.

Dementia can put a strain on a romantic relationship. This can be caused by the person’s difficulties with memory and communication, as well as changes in their energy levels, motivation and interests.