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Chairman's
Page 2012  Well
here we are in the year of 2012; a lot of water has gone under the
bridge since the original idea of forming a heart support group in
Nottingham. It is the start of our twenty second year as a support
group. We first had the idea put to us in September 1990, several
patients were contacted by Tracey Riley (a coronary care nurse) who sent
a letter to the patients suggesting they might be interested in forming
a self help group for people who had heart problems, four of those
patients responded to that invitation, as a result of this the first official meeting of our group took place in the physiotherapy department of the City Hospital in February 1991. I was one of those four people, I never imagined that I would be writing this item some twenty two years later, it certainly proved one thing, that the care given to me and others by the Nottingham hospitals has been first class. I along with the other original three are still alive and kicking, a little older and maybe a bit wiser. And with a lot of thanks to the medical expertise, and other members of our group who have been there to support us when the need has arisen. It has been remarkable that over the years how the group has grown, but I believe the reason for this is because it has always tried to stick by its original aims of support. Last year proved to be a busy time for everyone, and I know that for this current year different things are in the planning stage. Since we reintroduced our summer social two years ago, it has proved to be a success and people really enjoy it. This year the social will take place on Thursday the 26th of July at 7.00pm in the usual venue at the Sherwood Hall in the City Hospital Campus. At this meeting the members themselves will provide the food and snacks, and we usually see some lovely homemade food and is a bit of a challenge to one and all, I do hope that everyone will continue to support this event. We shall be hoping to have some fun, some music and a lot of chatter. It would be good if some of our ex members joined us at this occasion, and maybe some of the Doctors and nurses. Most of you will remember that old saying (The more the merrier) so do come along you will be most welcome. If you look to the what’s on page, you will see that we have some first class speakers lined up for our members meetings over the coming months. Why not come and join us at any or all of these meetings We already have a full programme of speakers for this year and Alan Bates has already started to book speakers for 2013 Over the past years we have been able to raise around £165,000, which has been given back to the Nottingham hospitals in the form of exercise equipment for use in Cardiac rehabilitation, we also gave a resuscitation dummy which simulated a person suffering from a heart attack, it allowed people to practice their resuscitation skills in case they had to do the real thing, we have also provided several 24 hour tape monitors , these monitors allow patients to be checked whilst at home, and then the tape is returned to the hospital for analysis. We have supplied the money for an aqua bath to be installed in the Morris ward at the Trent Cardiac building, this was along with some specialist monitoring equipment, At this moment of writing we have just bought a new TV for use in the waiting area of the catheter lab, this should help patients who are awaiting treatment. We have also funded several items for the cardiac rehab team, and we hope we can continue to raise the funds to carry on with this sort of thing, so thanks to all who contribute with their time on our fund raising events Our 2011 Christmas party took place at a new venue The Park Hotel on Mansfield Road Nottingham. This venue was excellent, with good food and plenty of car parking space, it is very likely we shall have the same venue for Christmas 2012. So as we get on with things at the start of this 22nd year I send you all my best wishes and thank all of the people who have helped us along the way thus far. Maurice Smith, Chairman-- The Cardiac Support Group (Nottingham) |
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