April 9th – The British Lung Foundation

Hannah Tucker the new Southeast Development Officer from the BLF came to introduce herself and give us a talk about the latest news from the BLF, the ways in which the BLF is able to support us as a group and also told us about where the money that is raised goes to. Of the money our group send to the BLF half of it goes towards research grants and half of it goes towards providing specialised Respiratory Nurses for areas of the country that don’t have one – both very worthwhile causes I hope you’ll agree. Now that Hannah’s gotten to know us we’re hoping she’ll be back for some of our other events.

March 12th - Beetle Drive

This was a fun afternoon with frantic dice throwing and strange looking beetles being drawn. We had a half a dozen games with the winner of each table moving on to the next table which meant that people got a chance to talk to pretty much everyone. We also had half a dozen Easter Eggs to be won which was an added bonus!

FEBRUARY 2008

In February Jean Fraser, who’s not only our Press Officer but also a photographic artist, gave us a presentation of her project – Drawing Breath: A Coastal Pushbike Journey. Jean completed the first stage of this project last summer, cycling round the coast from Whitstable to Hastings, with the aim of raising the profile of lung disease.

She had kept a photo-blog of the route and the people and groups she encountered on the way and presented this for members who do not have access to the internet. She also projected a new slide show of the route which has just been uploaded onto her website, www.drawingbreath.org.

Jean is now planning a group exhibition at the Horsebridge gallery in October this year, on the theme of breath and breathing and plans to involve the group in making self-portraits as part of this exhibition, for which she is currently seeking funding.

Jean was also supported on her journey by the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust. Respiratory Team who kept in touch with Jean and monitored her lung condition at various points during the ride.

There was a lot of interest, particularly in the planned Horsebridge exhibition and it is hoped that members of the group will be able to support the exhibition.

January 2008

We started the year with a talk from Claire Doran, Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust coordinator of the NHS’s Expert Patient Programme. She told us about the course, which is free, for people who live with any kind of chronic or long-term illness. The course aims to empower patients and works through peer education – and is run by trained lay tutors who deal with chronic health problems in their own lives so they understand the day to day difficulties of living with chronic disease.

The courses which currently run in Sittingbourne, Thanet and Deal will shortly be starting up in Whitstable. During the seven two-and-a-half hour sessions, patients share symptoms and problems caused by their illnesses; there are exercise, breathing and relaxation sessions and participants make action plans to achieve things they have found difficult. Mutual encouragement helps with confidence and self-esteem, and patients learn together ways to communicate clearly with their GPs, explain their illness and associated needs to their family and friends, and generally to become their own advocates. Understanding how to make living wills is another aspect dealt with on the course.

An animated discussion followed Claire’s talk, with several Breathe Easy members interested in taking the course. It certainly seems to work: evidence from the course’s graduates show that they visit their GPs less, have less outpatient appointments, and fewer trips to accident and emergency. Course members often choose to stay in touch for friendship and support after their sessions have ended.

The Expert Patient programme was set up as a Department of Health initiative in 2002. Eastern and Coastal Kent is one of the first primary care trusts to have a full-time Expert Patient coordinator. Government targets aim for 120,000 people to have taken the course by 2010 so Claire will certainly have her work cut out in East Kent. People with chronic disease can be referred to the programme by their health practitioner or they can self-refer by telephoning Claire. This programme really is about doing it for ourselves.

Claire Doran, Expert Patient Coordinator, Eastern and Coastal Primary Care Trust: 01304 216857

Christmas Lunch 2007

Once again a jolly festive time was had by all

World COPD Day - Herne Bay Junior School

On 14th November (World COPD day), BE members Jean and Rosemary who both have COPD - and Iveta Richterova from the respiratory team at the Whit and Tank – held creative educational sessions making giant “lungs” with the Year 5s at Herne Bay Junior School. Sadly Mollie, who had planned the session with us, was ill and unable to be there.



Rosemary and Jean had practised building lungs beforehand to see if the idea was viable - how Blue Peter is this?

Working with 120 children in two groups of 60, we used the British Lung Foundation’s red balloons as a way of thinking about lung health. Each child was asked to blow up a balloon with one large breath, then we compared the various sizes of our balloons. Jean's and Rosemary’s were pretty puny (especially Jean's!) while Year 5 head, David Vellani's balloon was almost fully inflated. (Oh the joy of healthy lungs!) The children asked lots of questions about pollution and how many breaths we breathe in a day (22,736).



With so many children we struggled to finish on time, but finally suspended two pairs of four foot high symbolic communal lungs over the minstrels’ gallery in the school hall, emphasising that they contained the precious individual breath of each child who had taken part. After we left, the children went on to make posters on the themes of the session.

This was a big learning curve. It was hard to work with so many children, and sadly Jean was only able to take one photo as we were on the go the whole afternoon.

Mollie was sorely missed, especially during the discussion. We wish you better, Mollie, and look forward to de-briefing with you later on. We have had quite a bit of coverage in the Herne Bay Times, Whitstable Gazette and hopefully in the forthcoming NHS Health News, which has hopefully raised our profile in the area.