Continuing  our month of poems to express solidarity with everyone touched by breast cancer:

Looking Back.....

How did I get through all that crap?
Where is SHE now? Who was I then?
The choices we made remembering them...
I think back to those dark times Wondering how I got through it "Don't know how you did what you did" It's a case of having to isn't it?
There's an inner strength lurking there, you don't know you've got it You're in that dark hole having an outer body experience Is this really happening to ME? Perhaps I will wake up soon, and find it's a dream!
The choices you had... Were they choices at all?
I lost a year

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

The 8th October is  World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world.  For example 'Voices for Hospices' is a wave of concerts taking place on every other 8th October.  This year's theme is 'Living and Dying in Pain: it doesn't have to happen'.

From personal experience all the people I've met who've worked in palliative care have been exceptional; caring, kind and very special.  This blog is just a small thank you for the amazing work done day in, day out that has contributed to the acceptance of palliative care as an important discipline in its own right. And that is building a body of specialist knowledge that we will all need one day.  So thank goodness it's there for us - and growing as a result of the work being done in palliative care around the world.

The benefits of smiling!

It's World Smile Day - and did you know that smiling can be better for you than you realise?  Smiling, laughing, and positive thinking have been shown to have a huge number of health benefits to both mind and body. Research suggests that all we need to do is smile, so for more information on how a simple facial expression can help lighten your mood follow the link to find out more about the benefits of smiling:

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/wellbeing/a10633/benefits-of-smiling/

We've had such a fantastic response to our recent weekly dementia poems to commemorate World Alzheimer's Month that we thought we'd post a weekly breast cancer poem to do the same for Breast Cancer Month and evveryone touched by breast cancer.

The first one we've chosen was posted by Poemsgalore on the poetry thread of Breast Cancer Care forum in December 2013

Mission Of World Animal Day 

To raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe. Building the celebration of World Animal Day unites the animal welfare movement, mobilising it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals. Through increased awareness and education, we can create a world where animals are always recognised as sentient beings and full regard is always paid to their welfare.

Ooh – perhaps there is such a thing as too much cake after all!  I have never been at all disciplined in refusing cake – and blame my sweet tooth for this lack of self-control, so I therefore found our Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday a bit of a trial.

As a fitting follow-up to our Memory Walk we thought we’d post a Dementia Poem a week throughout World Alzheimer’s Month.  These are in honour of everyone who is on, or caring for someone who is on, a dementia pathway.

World Heart Day is part of an international campaign to spread awareness about heart disease and stroke prevention. This is the perfect day to quit smoking, get exercising and start eating healthily – all in the name of keeping hearts in good working order, and improving the health and well-being of people the world over.

World MRSA Day was initiated, created and announced in January 2009 by Jeanine Thomas, President and Founder of MRSA Survivors Network and is the official organiser for World MRSA Day. Jeanine Thomas founded MRSA Survivors Network in 2003 (a non-profit organisation) and was the first advocacy group in the U.S. to raise the alarm about the MRSA epidemic and other healthcare-acquired infections.

There was an extremely interesting and relevant programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday 20th September entitled 'The Last Taboo'. This was regarding allegations of sex crimes made by elderly victims being ignored. If you missed this programme, you can listen again by following the link below