Breathe Easy Canterbury is a support group for people affected by lung conditions inlcuding their friends, family and carers. Find out more on Breathe Easy.
Where?
We meet at the Parish Social Club, 15a Castle Road, Whitstable, CT5 2DY.
View a map of venue location.
Meetings and activities in 2011
13 October 2011 - Annual General Meeting
More about the group
Annual Strawberry Tea
In July our treasurer's beautiful garden in Chestfield saw 25 members and guests turn up for our annual Strawberry Tea. We were particularly pleased to welcome 5 members of Breathe Easy Thanet and three from our community respiratory team.
Colossal amounts of strawberries and cream were consumed, along with scones baked by several of our members, amid amiable banter about whose were the best!
Every year Carol and her family allow us the use of their garden and they always create a welcoming environment - we thank them from the bottom of our hearts! We are also grateful to the British Lung Foundation (BLF) for setting up the Breathe Easy network and for the support the group gives each of us. A big thank you also to Rupert Mitchell who attended the event and who donated what must be the best strawberries in Kent!
The raffle raised £103, to be divided between the BLF and the group.
Happy 5th Birthday!
In June Breathe Easy Canterbury celebrated 5 years of hard work by holding a cream tea and dance with over 100 friends and family at the Marine Hotel in Canterbury.
The Whitstable Rotary Club provided the delicious cream tea, the KD Jazzband kept everyone's toes tapping and some of the members took the opportunity to show off their dancing skills. Dom Papineau and Mollie Jackson from the BLF (pictured with Carol Hakimian) congratulated the group. Pauline Treadwell (East Kent Respiratory Service) thanked us for all the funds we have contributed to the team.
We managed to raise £800 on the day from raffles, tombolas and games using prizes donated by local businesses and individuals.
Awareness-Raising
Breathe Easy Canterbury put on a stand to raise awareness of COPD (
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) on 'World COPD Day' on 18 November in Boots in Canterbury. The pharmacists and respiratory team helped by doing free lung functon tests for members of the public all day and members of Breathe Easy Canterbury who came to help on the stand did a great job of promoting themselves and the British Lung Foundation!
Breathe Easy Canterbury’s Sponsored Walk...
was started by Mollie Jackson (British Lung Foundation Nurse Manager) at Herne Bay and walkers made their way to Tankerton, accompanied all the way by the KD Jazz Band! At Tankerton, we stopped for some welcome refreshments before doing the return journey. It was a most enjoyable day and we raised around £500.
The walk was part of 'Breathe Easy Week' where groups across the country do events to raise awareness of Breathe Easy, The BLF and lung health.
Jean cycles her way to better lung health!
From 31 May - 30 June, Jean Fraser, a member of Breathe Easy Canterbury who has COPD, undertook an incredible journey, cycling from Hastings to the Isle of Wight!
Jean uses art to address perceptions of lung health, and has really helped raise awareness of the British Lung Foundation, including at Eastbourne hospital on 17 June, where she was joined by enthusiastic members of Breathe Easy Canterbury. Jean created a pair of 'community lungs' with balloons, using the breath of patients, visitors and staff at the hospital to blow each up and then hanging them from either side of an IV stand so that they looked like an enormous set of lungs (as can be seen in the photo above taken by Jean Fraser).
You can find out more about her project at www.drawingbreath.org and see her visits to other Breathe Easy groups along the journey. The exhibition was on display at St. Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight. The project is supported financially by BE Isle of Wight.
For more information or if you are interested in joining us at a meeting, then please contact Laura on 020 7688 5594.
