News about the North

The venue in Batley is where BE Dewsbury & District Group holds their monthly meetings - the Salvation Army Building. BE Aire Valley, BE East Leeds, BE Halifax and of course BE Dewsbury & District were all well represented. Thanks go to Major Bob Hall for organising an excellent and plentiful lunch and Bev remembered to bring food bags and tin foil for everyone to take home a “doggy bag” of left-overs.

Doncaster Network Day

Jackie from BE Doncaster suggested that we use the Wheatley Hotel in Doncaster who gave us the use of their function room and served a tasty lunch in the lounge of the hotel. Thanks to Jackie for this suggestion and to the hotel for making us welcome. Groups attending this event were BE Barnsley, BE Doncaster, BE Rotherham, BE Scunthorpe and BE Sheffield South

Darlington Network Day

Hallgarth Hotel in Darlington provided the venue for the third Network Day and they made us very comfortable and provided a good hot lunch. This meeting had representatives from Breathe Easy Durham, BE Harrogate, BE Hartlepool, BE Newcastle, BE Teesside, BE Wallsend and BE York.

On the programme for the morning session, Bev and Margaret brought everyone up-to-date with what is happening with the British Lung Foundation and Breathe Easy as well as looking ahead to plan and prepare for Breathe Easy Week in June and World COPD Day in November. Bev’s Breathe Easy Week presentation provided information on our Big Breaths and Airway Code campaign, other high profile media campaigns and a few suggestions for making the most of this awareness raising opportunity. The groups then had an opportunity to tell us about their activities in the past year and share their experiences – good and bad - with each other. This part of the programme always proves popular. As they say, “a trouble shared is a trouble halved” and there’s usually someone who has experienced a similar situation and has a good suggestion to put forward.

We then asked each group to use the supply of magazines, pens, scissors and glue provided to produce a graphic picture illustrating how they would reach out to their local communities to raise awareness and encourage more people to become part of the BE Support Network. Groups were encouraged to be as creative and imaginative as possible.

Group work in Batley (below)

The result was a series of excellent posters, incorporating lots of different ideas, and showed how open and accessible Breathe Easy can be and the extent of the support offered to local communities, as well as how much fun BE group members have at meetings and taking part in outings and activities.

Doncaster (below)

“Show and Tell”

Volunteers from each group told us how their “group” would reach out and tell their local community about Breathe Easy.

Cutting and pasting “Blue Peter” style at Darlingtonand sharing with others (below)

Batley and Doncaster (below)

WHAT YOU THOUGHT . . .

We asked everyone to give us their opinion of the day and below are some of the comments:

“What was the most enjoyable or beneficial part of the day for you?”

• Getting good ideas and information on raising awareness and fundraising.
• Meeting and working with other group members.
• Meeting people who have not met before and listening to their ideas and thoughts.
• Sharing news, views and ideas.
• The speakers and, of course, lunch!
• Enjoyed the whole day as it was well thought out. Look forward to the next one.

Finally, Bev and Margaret would like to thank everyone who attended for joining in so wholeheartedly and making the days so enjoyable and inspiring.

We look forward to seeing even more BE groups and their members next year.