Category: Health

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a joyous Christmas and you’re feeling refreshed.

Juliet Burgess-Ray, from East Midlands Army Responders, gave a very helpful, hands-on defibrillator training session in Church Langton on 9 October. Local residents attended and were shown how to access the defibrillator, what equipment is inside and how to use it. The session also included using a dummy to practice CPR. All agreed it was a very useful two hours and should be offered more widely. Especially as it is applicable for all types of defibrillator.

Children and young people aged 11 to 25 living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, are being encouraged to have a say on their experience of health services. As the local NHS launches its biggest ever engagement with young people.

’New year, new me.' We hear this a lot but is it really true? Why wait until the New Year to start a fitness routine? Why do people get more motivated to invest in their health and fitness just because it’s January -- the truth -- they don’t!

The word fact has links with manufacture, factory and artefact – things that are made by people. There are many aspects to this idea. The most obvious is that facts change as new discoveries are made: look in an old science book to see how many facts are now out of date. I have an old and treasured copy of ‘The Observer’s Book of Astronomy’, written and signed by Patrick Moore, which confidently asserts that Jupiter has 12 moons. As of writing, 95 moons have been discovered – a fact that may well soon become obsolete.

The nights draw in, the cold weather nips at our noses, and the twinkling lights of Christmas sparkle into the darkness. It is winter, and it is beautiful.

“If you really want to do something you’ll find a way….if you don’t want to do something you’ll find an excuse!”

I get it. Life is busy, and the world seems to spin faster and faster each day. Any spare minutes are precious, so we should use them wisely. However, we absorb these moments and scroll aimlessly through social media or the news. This does not benefit us much mentally or physically. So, I am on a mini-mission to encourage you to recapture your time and use it to serve you inside and out.

“We are courageous; we are supportive; we give it all we have got.”

Try this experiment: sit quietly where you won’t be disturbed. Gaze at an everyday object for a minute; a cup, a spoon, a book. Then, close your eyes and attempt to visualise that object for another minute.