Health & Wellbeing

People in the West Midlands are invited to join Parkinson’s UK at Sutton Park, Birmingham on Saturday 22 July 2023 for a fundraising walk to help fund vital research to find better treatments and a cure for Parkinson’s. 

Walk for Parkinson's is the charity's national community fundraising series, and everyone is encouraged to get involved to get active, meet new people, and help fund life-changing research.

The first five cancer patients received life-saving radiation treatment at Health City’s Centre for Radiation Oncology in Camana Bay last week as Wednesday, May 17 became a historic day, not just for the institution but for the Cayman Islands, as for the first time, residents could access state-of-the-art cancer services without having to travel overseas.

TVM Capital Healthcare, a global specialist healthcare private equity firm headquartered in Dubai and Singapore, is pleased to announce an investment, from its TVM Healthcare Afiyah Fund, of EUR 10 million into DEBx Medical, an Amsterdam-based medical devices company.

DEBx Medical, founded in 2019, has developed a groundbreaking product, DEBRICHEM®, which offers a superior alternative to existing treatments for non-healing chronic wounds. This innovative product is easy to use and highly effective in removing biofilm and curing hard-to-heal wounds. With CE and ISO approvals obtained in February 2021, DEBx Medical has already successfully treated over 5,000 patients, and is about to introduce its product to the market.

Croydon’s Men’s Shed is providing a safe space for people to come together and take care of their mental health while learning new skills, such as gardening, food growing and woodwork.

Men’s Shed is a community project based at Good Food Matters in Mickleham Way, New Addington. The Shed is an opportunity for (mainly) men aged over 18 to join weekly activities and eat together every Friday from 11am to 3pm.

The statistics are stark. Every three minutes someone will develop dementia. But currently only 63 percent of people with dementia in England have received a diagnosis – almost four points below the national ambition of 66.7 percent. 

An early and accurate diagnosis not only helps prepare families for the future, but opens the door to vital treatment, care and support and, crucially, avoids people ending up in crisis. At Alzheimer's Society, they are buoyed by seeing the number of GP assessments return to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s concerning that overall, diagnosis rates are still stagnating since reaching a five year low during the pandemic.

The statistics are stark. Every three minutes someone will develop dementia. But currently only 63 percent of people with dementia in England have received a diagnosis – almost four points below the national ambition of 66.7 percent. 

An early and accurate diagnosis not only helps prepare families for the future, but opens the door to vital treatment, care and support and, crucially, avoids people ending up in crisis. 

The sleep experts at sleepjunkie.com can reveal that a common botanical fruit many of us enjoy at any hour of the day, could be contributing to dreams or nightmares. 

A spokesperson at sleepjunkie.com says: “Bananas are a superfood that can be enjoyed pretty much any time of the day. However, eating them too close to bedtime can contribute to a restless night's sleep and stimulate vivid dreams or nightmares. 

TVM Capital Healthcare, a global specialist healthcare private equity firm operating in emerging markets, announced today the opening of a new office in the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of the new office is to advise the group and its portfolio companies as they grow their operational footprint in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the largest market in the region. Establishing this local office comes after TVM Capital Healthcare successfully expanded its portfolio company Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation Centre from the UAE to KSA in the year 2019.

A 13-year-old Aston Villa fan who survived a life-threatening immune disorder met midfielder Jacob Ramsey for a new plasma donation NHS campaign video release. Season ticket holder Luca Bradley met Jacob, one of his heroes, at Birmingham plasma donor centre, and even had a kickaround in the street.

Luca, from Sutton Coldfield, had myasthenia gravis, which can stop people being able to swallow or breathe and recovered partly thanks to medicine made from plasma. NHS Blood and Transplant filmed the meeting for a drive to recruit more than 1,000 new donors to the plasma donor centre in Birmingham’s New Street.

Today (May 15) marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, the UK’s national week to raise awareness of mental health – and Wolverhampton residents are being encouraged to get involved. A host of events are taking place across the city over the next few days, with people invited to find out about the support available locally for those who are experiencing anxiety – the theme for this year's campaign – or who have any other concerns about their mental health and wellbeing. 

Dream Challenges has launched its 2024 Ride the Night event – the UK's biggest all-women cycling event – following the wildly successful 2023 iteration that took place recently on 29th April. Next year's Ride the Night in London will be the company's 10th and it will be held on Saturday 4th May, during which over one thousand women will unite and cycle 50km or 100km through London overnight for people facing cancer.

Sports presenter and Olympic gold medal-winning heptathlete, Dame Denise Lewis DBE, attended Dream Challenges' 2023 Ride the Night and described it as an “inspiring” event to be part of. She said: “Ride the Night is such a fabulous event. I had the pleasure of taking part this year, and the atmosphere was incredible!

Volunteers Nick and Phillip were on hand to support Health and Wellbeing Champion Lead, Kimberley Linyard-Tough, when she needed help running a busy stall at a conference attended by over 400 staff. Kimberley reached out to the Volunteering Team as she needed help in providing an expansive range of information on improving and maintaining staff wellbeing.

Parents are being urged to check children are up to date with their MMR vaccinations, as data published by UKHSA shows the number of measles cases so far in 2023 is already approaching the figure for the whole of 2022.

Between 1 January and 20 April this year there have been 49 cases of measles compared to 54 cases in the whole of 2022. Most of the cases have been in London although there have been cases picked up across the country and some are linked to travel abroad.

Following the results of the donanemab phase 3 data, Dr Richard Oakley, Associate Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “After 20 years with no new Alzheimer's drugs, we now have two potential new drugs in just twelve months – and for the first time, drugs that seem to slow the progression of disease. This could be the beginning of the end of Alzheimer’s disease.   

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica. While the virus had claimed just a few hundred lives by that time, the pandemic declaration resulted in unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions on movement and commerce, causing economic contractions that are still being felt.

A dance class in Pune city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra aims to make a difference to the lives of elderly people with Parkinson's disease. It was started in 2009 by Hrishikesh Pawar, a dance teacher, who says his students dance "only for joy" in these classes.