On Saturday 18th July, we were honoured to deliver a presentation at the RNCJ’s 2nd Annual Elderly Conference. The theme of the conference was enhancing health and wellbeing and in keeping with that theme we spoke about aging healthily. We stressed the importance of combating the negative perceptions, stereotypes and narrative around the elderly which is very disempowering, and replacing this with a more positive narrative that empowers the elderly and enables them to live the best life possible; this means creating opportunities for the elderly to remain active.

We discussed the health challenges associated with aging and how these can be overcome through lifestyle changes particularly keeping active, eating a healthy diet, keeping the mind active and staying connected to friends, family and the wider community.  And, we finished off by reminding attendees that our ‘Golden Years’ can be the best years of our lives as we have a lot of time and flexibility. This gives us the opportunity to do the things that we’ve always wanted to do, pursue our passions, make a difference in our community and spend time with our loved ones, but we can only enjoy this phase of our life if we are healthy.

Attendees also heard from Sabrina Jantuah from Age UK who spoke about Community Connections, a project that is aiming to tackle isolation in Lewisham by encouraging people to access local services. Sabrina stressed the need for projects like community connections as 51% of people who are over 75 live alone and this has a negative effect on their wellbeing.  Sabrina’s talk was supported by a presentation from  Jeremy Sharpe of The Link who also highlighted the scale of the problem of isolation of the elderly in the UK. He provided data that made for grim reading – 500,000 older people in the UK spend Christmas Day alone and over 5 million older people consider their TV to be their main form of company. Jeremy described how The Link are combating isolation by working with churches to develop befriending programs where volunteers regularly visit those who live alone.

It was also really nice to hear of all the great work that the RNJC is doing to support the elderly in their local community in Lewisham. They run a monthly keep fit class, are implementing a befriending programme with support from The Link and are starting a coffee morning.

This was a very enjoyable and informative event and we’d like to say a big thank you to the conference organisers, particularly Shola Fiberesima.

This week the UK’s Independent Cancer Task Force published its report ‘Achieving world-class cancer outcomes: a strategy for England 2015-2020’. In their report the task force sets out a number of recommendations but propose six strategic priorities for the next 5 years:

1. Spearhead a radical upgrade in prevention and public health
2. Drive a national ambition to achieve earlier diagnosis
3. Establish patient experience as being on a par with clinical effectiveness and safety
4. Transform our approach to support people living with and beyond cancer
5. Make the necessary investments required to deliver a modern high quality service
6. Overhaul processes for commissioning, accountability and provision

We welcome these recommendations as if implemented properly and with specific approaches for the BME community this will greatly benefit the black community who have been shown to have particular challenges when it comes to cancer. These include increased risk of prostate cancer, myeloma and cervical cancer in the over 64s; lower levels of awareness of symptoms; being more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage; and being less likely to access cancer screening services.

We were also happy to see in the full report that one of the recommendations focused on increasing BME representation in NHS England’s regular Cancer Patient Experience Survey. This will help create an understanding of why the BME community consistently report having a worse experience of care than their white counterparts.

We will monitor NHS England’s progress in implementing these recommendations and will play our part to ensure the black community benefits from this new strategy.

You can read the full report and executive summary below.

July is Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month (EMCAM) in the UK giving us the prefect opportunity to focus on how the black community is affected by cancer and to raise awareness within our community. Overall the black community is slightly less likely to develop cancer than the white population but there are some cancers that are of particular concern. These are:

• Prostate cancer – black men are two times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men
• Cervical cancer – black women over the age of 65 are more likely to develop cervical cancer than their white counterparts
• Myeloma – the black community is 2-3 times more likely to develop myeloma, develop it at a slightly younger age and have poorer survival rates.
• Breast cancer – black women although less likely to develop breast cancer than white women are more likely to die from it and black women tend to develop breast cancer at a younger age than white women

In addition to this, research over the years has found that awareness of symptoms and uptake of cancer services, such as cancer screening, is lower in the black community. This leads to many black cancer patients being diagnosed at a late stage when their cancer is harder to treat, leading to lower cancer survival rates. We can change this by increasing awareness, taking prompt action if we notice symptoms and taking part in the breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes.

This Year’s Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month (EMCAM)

This year EMCAM is focusing on raising awareness of bowel cancer and the importance of screening. Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK with over 33,000 new cases diagnosed every year and it is more common in people over the age of 50. If caught early this cancer can be treated very successfully therefore screening and being aware of the symptoms is very important.

Bowel Cancer Screening

In the UK, everyone aged 60-74 is invited to take part in the bowel screening programme but participation is very low with only 50-60% of 60-74 year olds taking part. We encourage everyone to take part; it a very simple and straightforward process. Sample collection takes place in the comfort of your own home and you can simply send your samples off in a freepost envelope. For more information on bowel screening please click here.

The Symptoms of Bowel Cancer

The symptoms of bowel cancer are:
• Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your faeces
• A change in bowel habit lasting for 3 weeks or more (constipation or diarrhoea)
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unexplained fatigue
• Persistent tummy pain
• A lump in your tummy

If you are experiencing one, some or all of these symptoms and they aren’t going away, don’t panic, your symptoms could be due to a number of reasons, but do visit your doctor to rule out bowel cancer.

Learn More About Bowel Cancer This Month

Bowel Cancer UK, the Department of Health and community groups across the UK are working together to host free bowel cancer information sessions and below are the dates and locations of these events.

Friday 17th July – Age UK – 81 Brigstock Road, Thornton Health, CR7 7JH – 12 noon
Monday 20th July – The Sugar Group
Tuesday 21st July – CVA Resource Centre – 82 London Road, CR0 2TB – 12 noon
Saturday 25th July – Croydon BME forum – 387 London Road, CR0 3PB – 12 noon
Sunday 26th July – BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple – 75 Pitmaston Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, B28 9PP – 1pm
Monday 27th July – Pannel Croft Village – Pannel croft Newtown Birmingham B19 2YD – 2pm.
Wednesday 29th July – Wai Yin Chinese Elderly Group

For more information about bowel cancer please visit Bowel Cancer UK’s website.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has recently published a report entitled Food for Thought which aims to provide recommendations on how to promote a healthy diet among children and young people. The report was conducted in recognition of doctors’ increasing concern about the impact of poor diet on the UK’s health with high levels of ill health and premature mortality which all significantly drain the NHS’s resources. The BMA’s report recommends the following:

Overall approach to diet-related ill health

• A strong regulatory framework should be central to the approach to reducing the burden of diet-related ill health in the UK, focused on interventions that limit commercial influences on people’s dietary behaviour and encourage healthy dietary patterns.

Improving attitudes and knowledge

• High-impact and sustained social marketing campaigns should be used to improve attitudes and knowledge about healthy dietary behaviour and the health risks of a poor diet.
• Local authorities should work with schools to achieve the wider implementation of the whole-school approach for promoting healthier diets throughout the UK.
• There should be adequate resources to support all healthcare professionals in addressing dietary behaviour where possible and clinically appropriate.

Restrictions on mass media advertising and other marketing communications

• Regulations should be developed to prohibit the marketing of unhealthy food and drink products to children and young people.
• The marketing of unhealthy food and drink products in schools should be prohibited.

Regulating industry practices and changing the retail environment

• The UK health departments should commission a review of how the regulation of sales promotions can be strengthened to ensure they favour healthy options and deliver public health benefits.
• Regulations should be developed that prohibit retailers from displaying and promoting unhealthy food and drink products at checkouts and in queuing areas.

The physical availability of unhealthy and healthy products

• Local authorities should be provided with the power to restrict the future number, clustering and concentration of fast-food outlets locally.

Food in schools

• Legislation should be introduced in England to ensure that mandatory school food standards apply to all academy schools and free schools.
• A free fruit and vegetable scheme should be available to all primary school children throughout the UK five days per week.
• Consideration should be given to extending the provision of free school meals in Northern Ireland and Wales to be universal rather than based on entitlement.

Hospital food standards

• The UK health departments should work together to develop and implement consistent and comprehensive hospital food standards, which should be introduced as a statutory requirement.

Other food available in the hospital environment

• The sale of all unhealthy food and drink products should be phased out in all NHS hospitals, supported by the development and implementation of UK-wide mandatory regulations.

Food standards in social care setting

• Nutritional standards should be developed and implemented for the provision of food in all care homes in the UK, and should be a statutory requirement.

Regulating the nutritional content of processed food and drink products

• A one-year target should be set for manufacturers, retailers and caterers to not produce or sell any food and drink products containing artificial trans fats in the UK.
• All manufacturers, retailers and caterers should prioritise action to systematically reduce salt levels in all food and drink products sold and produced in the UK.
• UK-wide targets, to be achieved by 2020, should be set for manufacturers, retailers and caterers to reduce calorie, fat, saturated fat and added sugar levels for certain product categories

Fiscal measures that favour healthy diets

• A tax should be introduced on all sugar-sweetened beverages, which increases the price by at least 20%.
• Consideration should be given to the introduction of fiscal measures to subsidise the sale of fruit and vegetables.

International cooperation on nutrition

• The UK Government should lobby for, and support the World Health Organization in developing and implementing an international treaty on food and nutrition in the form of a Framework Convention on Healthy Nutrition.

The BMA recognises that these recommendations will not sit well with the government strategy of working with the food industry and this is where organisations like The Lake Foundation can make a difference as we aim to work in the best interest of the public. We support these recommendations as they recognise the importance of making healthy eating more affordable and accessible whilst making unhealthy food less affordable and accessible. We believe this is very important as the black community is disproportionately affected by diet-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood, and thus these recommendations, if implemented, would be of great benefit to our community.

You can download the BMA’s complete report below.

In June, the Basil Skyers Myeloma Foundation officially launched their report ‘Listen Up!  – Multiple Myeloma in Black Communities: An Unequal  Burden’. This was a very interesting report that aimed to provide a comprehensive view of how myeloma (a cancer that starts in the bone marrow) affects the black community.

From their work the authors found that myeloma disproportionately affects the black population with black people being 2-3 times more likely as white people to be diagnosed.  Specifically,  this disease is a challenge for black men with black men having the highest incidence and mortality than any other group.  In addition, black people affected by myeloma are likely to develop it at a slightly younger age and are on average four years younger than white people when diagnosed.  The reason why myeloma is more common in the black community is unknown and the report stresses the importance of further research to fully understand myeloma and its effects on the black community.

The report makes the following recommendations:

1. The improvement of the collection and interpretation of data on myeloma including ethnicity data.
2. Race and ethnicity should be consistently taken into account in clinical research in order to inform the development of clinically and culturally appropriate healthcare services.
3. Studies should be commissioned to understand the differences in diagnosis, survival and mortality between black and white groups, and to understand the efficacy of treatments
4. Wider attention should be given by local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and other public sector partners to the specific  health needs of the black community.

This is an interesting report that clearly highlights how myeloma affects the black community and the steps that need to be taken to start addressing the inequalities that exist in this disease area. The Lake Foundation  will aim to play its part in assisting in addressing some of these issues.

You can read the full report below.

Last Friday, we were absolutely delighted to be back at Croydon Arena for another round of summer cycling sessions.  We started these sessions last summer after teaming up with the Cycling Instructor with support from Croydon Council and as it went so well we decided to run the sessions again this year.

Friday’s session was the first in a series of four sessions which will run once a week throughout the month of July. The aims of the sessions are to improve confidence in cycling, prepare attendees for road cycling, teach basic cycling techniques and introduce people to an enjoyable way to get some exercise.

This first session was great fun and it was nice to see Brian from the Cycling Instructor again, he led the group last year and did a fantastic job so we were happy he was back with us again this year.  We were also really pleased with the turnout, there were ten of us and it was a really mixed group in terms of age, ethnicity and cycling ability, plus everyone was really friendly;  all the right ingredients for an enjoyable session.

After a round of introductions it was on to the serious part of the session, technique. We learnt how to check that our bikes are road worthy and then were instructed on the proper way to get on and off a bike, maintaining balance, braking properly,  riding with one hand (preparation for signalling) and cycling slowly (to prepare for cycling in traffic).

We were all given plenty of opportunity to practice all these techniques making this a very informative but practical session, and at the end of the two hours we had cycled several times around the track so we got some good exercise too!

The next session will be on Friday 10^th July at 6pm at Croydon Arena.  Please email events@thelakefoundation.com to register or call 07440 146 645, and you can download our flyer below for more information.

We would like to say a big thank you to the Cycling Instructor and Croydon Council for giving us the opportunity to run this cycling group.

 

This week The Lake Foundation became a member of the Croydon BME Forum and thus will be part of a growing alliance of black community groups working together to improve the lives of the BME community in Croydon.

The Croydon BME Forum is the umbrella organisation for Croydon’s BME voluntary and community sector. It engages with members of the community, building capacity and promoting equality and cohesion. It was established to give the BME community a voice ensuring key issues affecting residents of Croydon are raised with decision makers.

Specifically the forum works to:

• Ensure that they are involved in local policy and decision making; regeneration and neighbourhood renewal.
• Facilitate joint-working among BME communities to develop best practice and provide a unified BME voice within local strategic partnerships.
• Promote networking, collaboration and partnership between the BME voluntary sector and mainstream agencies building their organisational capacities.
• Engage with BME communities in all aspects of Croydon life.
• Encourage good race relations, community cohesion and equality of opportunity for all throughout Croydon.

We’re looking forward to being a part of this forum and are already very impressed with the first event we attended which was a Meet the Funder session with the Big Lottery Fund. This was a very informative session that discussed what makes a good grant application.
For more information on the Croydon BME Forum please visit their website here

A study published in the journal Circulation has estimated the number of global deaths per year that are associated with sugar-sweetened drinks, what diseases sugar-sweetened deaths are linked to and where in the world these deaths are occurring. They estimated that 184,000 deaths per year are associated with consuming sugar-sweetened drinks and when they broke these numbers down by disease area most of the sugar-sweetened drink deaths were associated with diabetes  (133,000 death per year).  Cardiovascular disease was associated with 45,000 of these deaths and cancers 6,450.

The study also found that the majority of sugar-sweetened drink deaths occur in middle-income countries  (71%) whilst 24% of these deaths occur in high-income countries and 5% in low-income countries.

This is a very important study as it yet again provides more evidence of the effect of sugar on our health. It shows the clear need for all of us to reduce our sugar consumption and this is particularly important for the black community who are 3 times more likely to have diabetes and therefore are more likely to be affected by sugar-sweetened drink death.

On 18^th June we were invited by Croydon Council to have a stall at the first annual Croydon Voluntary and Community Fair. This event was organised to allow charities and community groups in Croydon to showcase their work to attendees which included frontline Croydon Council staff, the general public, potential funders and representatives from the private sector.

We had a wonderful time on the day as it gave us the perfect opportunity to meet other charities to learn more about their great work, discuss ideas and get advice on common challenges. We were particularly delighted to meet Fatima Koroma from the Community Food Bank and learn of the work they’re doing to support vulnerable families and individuals. Additionally, it was wonderful to learn about the Mighty Men of Valour and the Ministry of Empowerment who are working to support and empower men and women in Croydon.

Speaking on the day was the mayor of Croydon, Councillor Patricia Hay-Justice who officially launched the fair and Councillor Mathew Kyeremeh, the deputy cabinet member for communities, safety and justice.

This was a really useful day allowing us to raise awareness of our work, connect with some really inspirational people and meet representatives from Croydon Council in person.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Croydon Council for organising this event and also for their generosity in designing and donating pull-up conference banners to every single stallholder. We love our new banner!

This week the National Institute for  Health and Care Excellence updated its suspected cancer GP guidelines and in doing so hopes to provide GPs with clear guidance to facilitate early diagnosis and  therefore a reduction in cancer deaths.

The guidelines use a new approach that focuses on patients’ symptoms rather than a particular cancer.  This means that patients who have  symptoms that relate to multiple cancers will be  investigated more appropriately as their symptoms will be brought together to determine all the potential cancers it could be rather than just looking at one cancer.

These new recommendations hope to ensure that GPs act faster when a patient has specific types of symptoms and give clear steps on what a GP should do to make a prompt diagnosis.
This is good news for patients as it means that GPs will now look at all symptoms together to get a full picture of what’s happening to their patient rather than looking at symptoms in isolation. Ultimately this should mean less visits to the GP, a quick referral and hopefully an early diagnosis.