2008 Health Mela

The ever popular Health Mela was held this year on March 8th at its usual venue - the GHS Centre in Preston.

The chief guests were Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, and Surinder Sharma, National Director of Equality and Human Rights for the Department of Health.

Now in its seventh successful year, the GHS Health Mela has become nationally recognised as a model of best practice for health professionals wishing to engage with BME communities. It has been applauded by health representatives from central government, the Department of Health, the Healthcare Commission, NHS Trusts and many other professional organisations.

The 2008 Mela ran between 10am and 4pm and, as usual, entrance was free of charge. The GHS Health Mela is supported by Preston NHS Primary Care Trust and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

In correspondence with Professor Romesh Gupta after the event, Professor Gilmore wrote: "I was struck by the enormous energy, commitment and enthusiasm at the Mela, and for me it reinforced the value of individuals contributing to the community in which they live and work. Not only are there huge opportunities to improve individual health, this is also an invaluable tool for maintaining the health and well-being of the wider community and relationships between those of different ethnic backgrounds. I know that this initiative will go from strength to strength under your inimitable leadership."

Writing to Prof. Gupta, Surinder Sharma said: "I enormously enjoyed attending the Health Mela and meeting so many people, so please thank all your colleagues for their care and hospitality in looking after me. I was really impressed by the voluntary time, energy and commitment shown by you and all your colleagues in making this event such a success! I hope this event goes from strength to strength in the future and that it is likely to be copied by other cities up and down the country."

Please click here to view the 2008 Health Mela poster. (PDF - 162k).

You can view/download a copy of the 2008 Health Mela review here. (Word format - 959k.)

More details about the event can be found on our news page.

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Forthcoming Health Seminars

• September 14th. How to access GP services. Dr. Kumari.
• November 23rd. Diabetes. Dr. Rajbhandari.
• December 14th 2008. Osteoarthritis. Dr. Chattopadhyay.
• January 2009. TBA. Prof. R. Gupta.
• February 2009. Fall prevention. Sarifa Kabir.
• March 28th 2009. HEALTH MELA.
• April 2009. Pain management. Dr. R. Kumar.

In 2008, all events will be held at the GHS Centre and start at 2.30pm, running until 3.30pm.

The Health Seminars are seen as the way forward in improving the health of the community. The programme of events changes behaviours and attitudes and constitutes a cost effective way of promoting health and preventing disease. Its aims are to provide an enhanced learning environment for the community and to provide an informal opportunity for the residents of Lancashire to obtain advice from specialists from different areas of medicine and other voluntary organisations.

It will apply the best possible evidence-based learning, while taking into account the prevailing context and values, in the making of health policy and in the implementation of health programs at the national, regional, district and local levels. The GHS Centre will promote interdisciplinary collaboration within and between professionals through conferences and workshops and through electronic networking.

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Disability Hate Crime Conference
10th December 2007, Liverpool

On 10th December, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) welcomed a range of voluntary and community groups to its free Disability Hate Crime Conference at the LACE Conference Centre, Liverpool.

The CPS wants more people to know about its new policy on dealing with discrimination and with hatred towards people with disabilities. It wants to encourage more people to report Disability Hate Crime and wants to give disabled people more confidence in the CPS and in how criminal cases are handled.

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Preston Hobbies Fair

Keeping active, both physically and mentally, is an important factor in maintaining good health. With this in mind, the LHGUF organised its annual Preston Hobbies Fair, which took place at the GHS Centre on Sunday 18th November 2007.

This free, annual event has proved extremely popular in the past and always provides lots of entertainment and interest for all the family. Running between 10.00am and 4.00pm, the 2007 event featured dance and musical performances, together with demonstrations of card making, Indian crafts, henna painting and practical skills such as woodwork and first aid.

The event is sponsored by Flexicom Limited, the Rotary Club of Preston Amounderness, Preston City Council and Area Forum.

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Charity Dinner in aid of Rosemere Cancer Foundation

On the 22nd September, the Lancashire Gujarat Health Users' Forum hosted a very successful charity dinner in aid of the Rosemere Cancer Foundation. The fund raising event was held at the Gujarat Hindu Society Centre on South Meadow Lane and raised thousands of pounds for the charity.

This was a Joint event between LGHUF and Gujarat Hindu Society. Over 100 tickets were sold through the hard work of the LGHUF steering group. As ever the GHS volunteers took up the challenge of making the necessary arrangements for the evening.

For entertainment, Centre Manager, Abhinandana gave 2 classical dance performances that were exhilarating, impressing everyone present. Well done to Abhi for such a stunning performance.

In addition, guests were treated to a number of songs from Dr. Kumar and party, and as ever, able musicians Dilip Kumar and Bharat Chudasama provided the musical support. Well done to them as well.

The evening was very well received, particularly the lovely meal, which was provided by Nepalese restaurant, Indian Valley.

The GHS ladies’ group led by Shilpa Nayee and Urmila Tailor provided a team who looked after all the table arrangements and made sure the kitchen was left spotless at the end. A special thank you was given to all of them by GHS President, Ishwer Tailor MBE, who praised the whole team and said that they were the backbone to many events at the centre.

On the evening, a joint presentation was made to the chair of cancer foundation Mr Alec Burford for the sum of £1000 plus a further £300 donated on the evening by the guests.

The money will now go towards the Foundation's "Ray of Hope Appeal", which is seeking to raise enough funds to purchase new equipment that will aid the targeting of anti-cancer radiation treatments, thereby minimising any adverse effects of such treatments on healthy cells.

Raffle prizes were donated by the House of Raja in Bolton and by members of the steering group. The money raised was donated to the GHS.

Three healthy eating pictures were created by young children as part of healthy living project, This was coordinated by Chetan Chauhan. The GHS would like to express its sincere thanks to all the children who participated and offers a very special thank you to Babubhai Panchal for framing the pictures at short notice. The pictures will hopefully be placed in Royal Preston Hospital.

Overall this was an excellent evening. Professor Romesh Gupta praised everyone from LGHUF steering group for their hard work and also the GHS for its ability to organise such a professional evening of dinner and entertainment. Well done to one and all for their contribution in time and money.

For more details about the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, please visit www.rosemere.org.uk.

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