Cherry Lodge Cancer Care’s third annual ‘Live Life Live Well’ day was held on Monday 17th September 2018 at Barnet Multicultural Centre (BMCC) in Hendon. This was a fun and upbeat day, organised by Cherry Lodge nurses, Fiona and Kirsty, and sponsored by Macmillan Cancer Support. The event was free but by ticket only, and attracted around 90 Cherry Lodge members, many of them living near BMCC in the west of the borough.
The aim of the day was to empower people living with cancer and other chronic life-limiting conditions, such as heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes, to make positive but simple changes to their daily life. Particular emphasis was given to the benefits of exercise and a healthy diet.
After registration and coffee, attendees were welcomed to the event by Glenys Carter, MBE, chair for the day and a Cherry Lodge volunteer. The day’s activities began with an enjoyable seated exercise class, led by Tracy Levy from the Extend Programme (photos 2 and 3, below). This was followed by a very informative keynote speech from Dr Pauline Leonard, MD, FRCP, consultant medical oncologist at the Whittington Hospital (photo 4).
The second of the morning’s activities was a cookery demonstration by Clare Donovan from Cooking Champions, who left the audience in no doubt that healthy food could be both easy to prepare and very tempting. Clare also gave everybody a sample of delicious vegetable soup to take away. This was followed by an hour’s break for a good, healthy, vegetarian lunch as well as plenty of opportunity to visit the selection of stalls representing Barnet Healthwatch, Dermasilk therapeutic garments, Orchid Fighting Male Cancers and Macmillan Cancer Support.
Activities in the afternoon began with a Move4You session led by Emiliano Bianchi of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (to be seen in photo 10, below, with chair Glenys Carter). Cherry Lodge has had a link with Move4You for several years now and a good number of members have already benefited from the programme. Next up was a soothing Guided Relaxation led by Alessia Biciocchi, Cherry Lodge volunteer hypnotherapist (photo 13).
A break for the raffle draw was followed by the final activity of the day – a hearty sing out with Jenny Graham, an accomplished singer songwriter who also directs a gospel choir (photo 14).
Fiona and Kirsty pass on their special thanks to Bahar Mohsini, manager of BMCC, for her ongoing help and enthusiasm. Thank you also to all the speakers, session leaders, stall holders and volunteers from BMCC and Cherry Lodge who helped make this such a very successful day. Cherry Lodge is also grateful to Macmillan Cancer Support and BMCC for their generous sponsorship of the event.
Click on the small images below to see larger, complete photographs..
