Leyland Health Mela Reflection 14/10/17
Oct, 17 2017
~Local people depend on a thriving town, city or village to provide events and features throughout the calendar year. It may be a weekly car boot, a village fete or a carnival set to ignite the city in an extravagant way. For some people though they may prefer events which focus on health and well-being. Events that determine what is and is not beneficial for us. An event which, year in year out pulls in the crowds for them to experience a complete makeover in a healthy and nutritional way.
For it’s sixth consecutive year, The Leyland Health Mela made it’s way to the local high school Academy@ Worden on Saturday 14th October 2017. Invited guests had the opportunity to attend the breakfast meeting which discussed, in-depth ‘The Challenge of Childhood Obesity’. From there, The Health Mela was officially open to the curious public courtesy of Amanda Hatton, Director of Children’s Services at Lancashire County Council, in the presence of the Mayor and Mayoress of South Ribble.
From 11am in the morning right through till 4pm in the afternoon crowds of people got the chance to experience a relaxing session of Reiki, a peaceful head massage and have a go on a smoothie bike in a bid to win them a drink.
Outside of the treatments on offer visitors could navigate their way to a total of 50 stations and stands which offered free advice on health and well-being. South Ribble MP, Seema Kennedy readily answered questions and concerns from members of the public.
The students appeared unfazed by the crowds and provided sufficient knowledge and guidance where appropriate. In addition, the students directed people to the Health MOT which created quite a lot of discussion before, during and after the event. The MOT gave the public a professional health check with associated counselling provided by volunteer medical students from the Universities of Manchester and Central Lancashire.
Chief Guest, Amanda Hatton, spoke in response to such a positive and well received day,
“It was wonderful to be part of such a vibrant and well attended event which took such a wide view of health. There was everything from physical health checks to Indian head massage which I'm really sure will help improve health and wellbeing in the community.”
79 visitors completed the core check-up which included BMI, blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels and 22 (27.8%) were referred to their GP for further investigation. Many visitors also took tests and advice on sight, hearing and oral health.
Over 600 people left the Academy @ Worden at 4pm on Saturday 14th October 2017. Organised by the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing (NFHW) it became the third time to be located at the enterprising local high school, working collaboratively with the Rotary Club of Leyland. Local people look forward to attending, learning and participating in the Health Melas as they are now an established feature of the local calendar. Organisers encourage contacts from individuals to come forward and represent their health related organisations with courage and confidence.
NFHW, Chair, Professor Romesh Gupta, OBE has these concluding words about the powerful influence of The Health Melas and what they mean to each and everyone of us,
“The NHS is a precious resource for all of us. To conserve and enhance it we need to make sure that individuals and communities understand how to use it intelligently. Health Melas are all about developing that understanding and I believe that, year on year, that is just what we are achieving in Leyland and further afield. Thank you to everyone who is with us on this journey.”
You can find out more about NFHW by visiting the web-site at http://www.nfhw.org.uk or by contacting:
Derek Ormerod, Public Relations derek.ormerod@nfhw.org.uk
Sarifa Kabir, Secretary sarifa.kabir@nfhw.org.uk
^Alex Ashworth.
