Lake Health and Wellbeing started its life in 2013 as the UK-based registered charity, The Lake Foundation, that aimed to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community in the UK.
Our organisation was birthed out of the need to address the health inequalities that exist in the UK where the black community has poorer health outcomes, are at an increased risk of developing a number of diseases and don’t always have access to adequate support to cope during periods of ill-health. To address these issues, we developed a stream of work with the following aims and objectives:
- To raise awareness of the symptoms and risk factors of diseases that are more common in the African and African-Caribbean community to facilitate prevention and early detection.
- To encourage a healthy lifestyle by providing services that equip the public to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
- To create an understanding of the issues that the African and African-Caribbean community face in accessing health services and maintaining good health.
- To provide information and support to those who are concerned about their health.
Over the years we made significant progress receiving funding from local government, Sports England, Prostate Cancer UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Eli Lilly to implement a range of projects. These included an African and African-Caribbean cancer support group, a prostate cancer engagement and empowerment pilot, a diabetes community champions project, a cycling project and the development of information on hereditary cancer.
Furthermore, we conducted a survey on the needs of black women with fibroids and based on our findings implemented a fibroids awareness, information and support programme where we have delivered presentations, hosted a conference for women with fibroids, created a fibroids booklet, formed an expert panel and run regular fibroids Twitter chats.
We also conducted research to understand black women’s lay beliefs about breast cancer and their help-seeking behaviour; conducted a cancer awareness and outreach community-based assessment; and have explored a variety of health topics through our very active blog.
Our work was made possible through a number of collaborations and partnerships with organisations like Diabetes UK, Prostate Cancer UK, The Cycling Instructor, the Croydon BME Forum, Black History Walks, TOHETI, InFaction, Breast Cancer Care, Kinetic Root Services, Uzima, Adinqra, the Genetic Alliance UK, OH Services, Croydon College, Noire Wellness, community organisations and local businesses, of whom we are very grateful for their support.
Relocating to the Caribbean
In 2017, we slowly wound down our activities in the UK as we prepared to move our organisation to the Caribbean. We’re now based in St Kitts and with the move came a change of name from The Lake Foundation to Lake Health and Wellbeing. Whilst we have a new name our mission remains the same: to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community.
We’re now a non-profit company and at the end of 2018 developed our two-year strategy for 2019 and 2020 which focuses on childhood obesity prevention, women’s health and consultancy.