Action Mesothelioma Day 5 July 2013

A few years ago an old friend of mine died of an industrial disease contracted whilst working with asbestos in his youth.

For that reason, I like to do my bit to promote Action Mesthelioma Day, which takes place on the first Friday in July each year.

Unfortunately little information has been forthcoming this year and I must admit the event had slipped my mind.

The day involves local, community-based groups, often organised by families affected by asbestos-related disease, running events promoting awareness of the issues and of their own activities.

The event is co-ordinated by Mesothelioma UK, who can be contacted via http://mesothelioma.uk.com . I`m sure they will be only too happy to provide, or indeed receive, information about AMD events taking place around the country.

While we`re on the subject, I`d like to mention  Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team, a well-respected and long-established local charity that works to support those affected by asbestos-related illness.

DAST works with charities, community groups, trade unions and others as you`ll see from their latest newsletter ; http://asbestossupport.co.uk/doc/DAST.pdf .

Lastly, I`d also like to mention the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK (http://www.asbestosforum.org.uk) . This seems to be a very worthwhile initiative that provides much-needed support and advice to many.

At present the group is running a petition in respect of  the 2013 Mesothelioma Bill,. You can learn more about this by clicking on the link they provide. I hope that some of you will consider signing this, as I have done myself.

Meet the Author : Damian Barr

Emerge Festival 2013

Good news for music lovers is that Derbyshire`s Emerge Festival,  will be taking place this year, on Sun 23 June 2013.

Emerge is a daytime event that prides itself on it`s musical diversity and takes place at Shipley Country Park. It`s future has been in some doubt for a while, and for quite a time now it has only taken place once every two years.

For this year at least, Emerge has been moved forward to co-incide with Shipley Park`s annual Open Day.

Past festivals have provided lucky punters with the chance to hear a range of music, with one year being especially memorable  for a headlining performance by jazz singer Helen McDonald, an artist I have seen live many times and who turned in an excellent set despite the disadvantage of having to appear late afternoon as the event was coming to a close.

Further details ; www.ambervalley.info/eventdetail.asp?eventid=2727 

                                                              Helen McDonald

Arctic Convoy Members Commemorated

The story of the Arctic Convoys and the struggle of survivors to achieve the level of recognition they felt was appropriate has been well-documented. Those unfamiliar with the story may wish to click here ;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21583176 .

What about the individual stories of  those involved ? Once again, the nation`s smaller newspaperrs have a lot to contribute here.

Two stories which caught my eye recently appeared in my local newspaper, and can be found here ;

http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/news/war-hero-recalls-arctic-missions-1-5661799

http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/news/local/arctic-convoy-hero-finally-gets-medal-70-years-on-1-5623125

The first concerns itself with Dennis Yates of Marlpool, Derbyshire, a shipwright on HMS Scylla, whilst the second concerns itself with George Eyre of Codnor, a wireless telegraphist on HMS Duke of York.

Small newspapers in other areas have comparable stories. Naturally I can`t track down and list them all, but the others include ;

 Unsigned - `Pensioner George Yorke Receives Medal...`, posted 19 May 2013 at www.dailyecho.co.uk
 Unsigned - `Arctic Convoy Medal for Veteran Bob Watkin`, which appeared in The Citizen and was posted at www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk 31 May 2013
 Emma Rigby -  `Hartford Man Ernie Nelson Will Receive the Medal...` , posted 31 May 2013 at www.northwichguardian.co.uk .

 Articles about Jock Dempster appeared at www.dailyrecord.co.uk , www.scotsman.com , www.heraldscotland.com , www.deadlinenews.co.uk , http://forargyll.com and www.eastlothiannews.co.uk and many others.

However belatedly, it`s only right that we commemorate the men who made the  journey that was so  dangerous that amongst themselves they referred to it as the `suicide run` and which Churchill once called "the worst journey in the world."

Small Charities Week 2013

Without wanting to repeat myself too much, here`s another plug for Small Charities Week 2013, which takes place 17 - 22 June 2013.

Further info ;

http://smallcharityweek.com

http://www.thefsi.org

This Months Good Cause - NHS Blood and Transplant

`This Month`s Good Cause` is a feature  I`ve recently added to this blog.

The idea is, pretty obviously, that each month I select a good cause to promote , and which then appears  on the right-hand side of this blog near the top, until the next month starts and things move on.

The other aspect I`ve introduced is that overall I`d like to strike a balance between local, national and international causes.

Without more ado, let`s take a look at this months cause, which is NHS Blood Donors/NHS Blood and Transplant.

I can`t imagine this needs much explanation, so I`d just like to give my own experience of giving blood for the first time not so long ago.

I actually enrolled as a blood donor quite some time ago, but work and family commitments, plus a short period where I wasn`t in the best of health meant that I was unable to actually do anything about it for a while.

I did wonder how I`d be about giving blood, but when it came to it I didn`t find it stressful at all, and generally I felt pretty good about the whole thing. You do have to set aside some time to recover afterwards and also make sure that you`re well-fed and rested beforehand, but other than that, there`s nothing to it.

`It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it`, as someone once said.

I don`t want to waffle on indefinitely, so here`s a link to the blood donor web site - www.blood.co.uk

 

 

Well, that`s this month`s cause, now let`s have a look at it`s predecessors ;

 

 

May 2013 -   Anti Slavery (www.antislavery.org)

 

April 2013 - Derbyshire Blood Bikes (www.derbyshirebloodbikes.org)

 

March 2013 - Brake (www.brake.org.uk)