Saturday 22 June 2013

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.





Saturday 8 June 2013

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














Sunday 2 June 2013

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

Saturday 1 June 2013

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)