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.

Sponsored Walk 1

On September 9th 2007 the Breathe Easy Canterbury and District held their annual sponsored walk. It was a very colourful affair this year. At the start local band KD Jazz entertained us before leading us off along the first stretch of the walk. Barbara Sturgeon, Kent Ambassador and award winning broadcaster officially started the walk and walked with us.

We walked from Herne Bay Hampton Pier (or in some cases rode on bicycles and in wheelchairs), the 2 miles or so to The Marine Hotel at Tankerton slopes where we stopped for lunch and more entertainment. The KD Jazz Band played for us again, then once the sandwiches had been consumed Barbara gave us a speech and invited a couple of our members to be interviewed.

More Sponsored Walk Photos

We couldn't have asked for a better day.

The KD Jazz Band started us off in style.

The Marine Hotel in Whitstable kindly provided us with the room for this event.

Sponsored Walk 2

We had some more music provided by Chris Baxter who played the harmonica and his friend Alan who accompanied him on the guitar.








Following that Linnea gave us a demonstration of another form of exercise, belly dancing. The glorious weather and a carnival atmosphere ensured a very happy day.

After the entertainment those who were able walked the two miles back to Hampton Pier. So far the walk has brought in over £1000 and there are a few more sponsorship forms to be returned yet!