Every year 110,000 people in England have a stroke. It’s our third leading cause of death, and there are at least 300,000 people living in England with disabilities as a result of stroke.

In Suffolk 1,000 people are treated for a stroke at Ipswich or West Suffolk Hospital.

That is why tomorrow (Tuesday, 1 March) the Government is relaunching its television ad campaign to remind people how to spot someone having a stroke and what they can do to help them.

As well as finding out what to do, you can also take an interactive test online at www.nhs.uk/actfast now. And why not pass on the message to friends and family.

Sandie Robinson, lead for commissioning and development in stroke, said. “Our stroke care in Suffolk is improving with more stroke patients being treated on specialist stroke units. We still have much to do to ensure we are all able to recognise the early symptoms of a stroke and to ensure someone with a suspected stroke gets to a hospital as quickly as possible. In the case of a stroke, time is crucial – access to early treatment can reduce the level of brain damage and improve long-term outcomes.”.


“Relaunching the FAST campaign will further raise the awareness of what to do, enabling us to help more people have a better recovery.”

Although they can occur in people of any age, strokes are especially likely to affect people over the age of 55. Prompt action after a stroke is crucial as it can prevent further damage to the brain and help make a full recovery. Delay can result in major long term disabilities.

This is why it is vital for as many people as possible to learn how to Act FAST.


Face - has their face fallen on one side? Can they smile?

Arms - can they raise both arms and keep them there?

Speech - is their speech slurred?

Time - time to call 999 if you see any one of these signs.

Once a patient has been diagnosed as having had a stroke they are taken to a specialist ward at one of our two major hospitals to receive the care they need.

NHS Suffolk, and Ipswich and West Suffolk Hospitals, have been working together to improve that level of care and the number of patients able to receive that treatment. At the moment 83% of stroke patients are treated on a specialist stroke unit. NHS Suffolk wants that to be 90%. That breaks down as 90% at Ipswich and 74% at West Suffolk.

Sandie said: “Stroke is an often underestimated cause of death and disability, when in fact it is one of the major causes of death in this country – even for people who survive a stroke it could leave them permanently disabled. However, it will come as no surprise to many people that stopping smoking, eating healthily and taking exercise can dramatically reduce the chances of having a stroke.”


1. What is a stroke?
A stroke is a brain attack. For your brain to function, it needs a constant blood supply, which provides vital nutrients and oxygen to the brain cells. A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off and brain cells are damaged or die


Symptoms and actions
A patient might feel dizziness, communication problems, difficulty talking and difficulty understanding what others are saying, problems with balance and coordination, difficulty swallowing, numbness/weakness resulting in complete paralysis of one side of the body, and loss of consciousness in severe cases.


2. The Government's Act FAST television campaign is being re run from 1 March for three weeks to equip people with the knowledge to help family, friends and others should a stroke occur.

For more information about NHS Suffolk visit www.suffolk.nhs.uk

Saturday 26 February
LADIES 2s – no game
LADIES 3 v Panthers (L) (A) 2.00 3-0 W
LADIES 4s – no game
LADIES 5s v Norwich Dragons 3s (L) (H) 10.30 (W) 1-2 L
LADIES 6s v Norwich City 4s (L) (H) 10.45 (S) 1-1 D
GIRLS Dev. v Norwich City (L) (H) 12.15 (S) 1-5 L

MENS 1s v St Albans (L) (H) 2.15 0-3 L
MENS 2s v Pelicans (L) (H) 12.15 (W) 6-5 W
MENS 3s v City of Peterborough 3s (L) (A) 3.00 1-4 L
MENS 4s v UEA (L) (A) 1.00 5-3 W
MENS 5s v IES 2s (L) (A) 1.00 0-3 L
MENS 6s v Dereham 5s (L) (H) 4.00 (W) 3-0 W
MENS 7s v Lowestoft Railway 2s (L) (A) 2.30 5-2 W
BOYS Dev. v Pelicans (L) (A) 12.00 1-7 L

Sunday 27 February
LADIES 1s v Ipswich (L) (A) 2.00 1-0 W
MENS 2s v Cambridge University 2s (L) (A) 2.00 0-4 L
MIXED v Brentwood (EHB Trophy) (H) 12.30 9-0 W

This promotional film commissioned by wrought-iron chainmakers Noah Hingley and Sons (based in Netherton in the West Midlands) shows the labour-intensive work needed to make the heavy chains, hooks and anchors used in shipbuilding, and the equally arduous process of testing the end product's soundness and rigidity. Although made in 1939, it's a silent film, an indication of its low budget independent origins. You can read more about the film at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/i...

The complete film, with music by Stephen Horne, is included on the new BFI DVD 'Tales from the Shipyard', featuring over five hours of documentary film revealing the history of British shipbuilding with many rare and little known titles: http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/...

'Selections from This Working Life: Tales from the Shipyard will be shown in cinemas at BFI Southbank, Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema, Glasgow Film Theatre and Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre, presenting newly restored feature films, non-fiction and television material - all captured by filmmakers across a century. Read more at http://www.bfi.org.uk/shipyard/

This year selected local writers were invited to write a play based round a coffin, hence this event - Boxing Clever. Their brief was to write something that was easily staged, less than half an hour long and entertaining. Not all those asked were able to provide a play while others were able to produce more than one. In the end they received eight different plays of such quality that they decide to stage them all.



By performing a selection of short plays EyesWrite is able to let numerous writers learn more about the art of writing, not only from the reaction of audiences but by listening to what the directors and actors have to say about their scripts. In this way skills are honed and developed allowing writers to improve the way they write.

EyesWrite does not have a membership as such and finding actors is not always easy. We have to seek help for all the other aspects of play production too, including lighting, sound, costume, props, sets and furniture and we are always eternally grateful to those volunteers who come to work with us.

We rarely have the energy or capacity to seek grants and so we are completely self sufficient. In essence our biggest source of income is the production of Gwyn Guy's murder mystery plays and what we make on these highly entertaining and social evenings allows us to put on yet more plays. EyesWrite will continue to provide outlets for new plays but had we regular financial assistance from a sponsor we would do so much more. However in these austere times sponsors are hard to find. Maybe one day?

This year instead of holding an annual festival of short plays, selected local writers were invited to write a play based round a coffin, hence this event Boxing Clever. Their brief was to write something that was easily staged, less than half an hour long and entertaining. Not all those asked were able to provide us with a play while others were able to produce more than one. In the end we received eight different plays of such quality that we decide to stage all of them. Thank you for supporting this event. Sit back and enjoy your afternoon or evening.

Indie rock dance band Typewriter Radio – who have only been together for 5 ½ months – battled it out with three other brilliant East Anglian groups on Friday 18th February to win the first heat of Band DISScovery 2011 and a place in the Grand Final on Friday 8th April.

Talented young outfit The Easy Brothers, an Indie Blues Rock & Reggae band from Old Buckenham were convincing winners of the Audience Favourite vote on the night. They’re still in with a chance to win the overall competition because the band receiving the most Audience votes over the four heats also wins a place in the Grand Final.

Heat 1 Winners Typewriter Radio are all 25-26 yrs old and are based in Norwich. The individual band members are:
Dan Beddows
Lee Youngs
Ian O'Brien
Gyannis Efrekremidis

The judges, Jono Heale (Access to Music), Jo Bowley (Lead vocalist of well- known Norfolk band The BB's and youth services worker in music) and Brett Baber (East Anglian Music Promoter) were all astonished at the talent and ability of all four bands. Here’s what they said about Typewriter Radio:

"The front man has great stage presence with a lovely voice - a modern day Brian Ferry." Jo Bowley
"All really tight as a band but still displaying individuality while performing." Jo Bowley
"Good voice!!! Good driven solo guitar throughout!" Brett Baber
"The frontman reminds me of Ian Curtis from Joy Division" Bret Baber
"Everything came together in your last three original numbers" Jono Heale

Audience Favourite, The Easy Brothers are:
Joe Burns 16
James Burns 14
Oli Aston 14
Guy Dennis 16
Jessica Murray 15

Judges comments about The Easy Brothers:
"Wonderful guitaring - very creative solos" Jo Bowley
Female vocalist "Fabulous" Jo Bowley
"Charming frontman" Jo Bowley
"Watch this space!" Jo Bowley
"The professionalism for such a young band was outstanding." Jono Heale
"Great female lead vocals and backing vocals" Jono Heale
"Great drummer - absolutely on the button!" Jono Heale
"I have put 100s and 100s of young student bands on across the UK - AND YOU GUYS HAVE REALLY GOT SOMETHING!" Jono Heale
"Such mature songs for ones so young" Brett Baber
"I haven't heard such fantastic female vocals in a long time" Brett Barber

The second for four Heats is on Friday 4th March at 7.30pm and features four more fantastic bands with influences as diverse as U2, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac and styles from Indie Folk and Electro Rock. It also includes Bury Sound winners, Twisted Piglet.

Cataclysmics from Roydon
Crumbs For Comfort from Mulbarton
Woodland Creatures: from Norwich
Twisted Piglet from Eye

The four extremely talented bands who fought it out at Diss Corn Hall on Friday night in the first heat of Band DISScovery 2011 were:

The Easy Brothers from Old Buckenham
Fick As Fieves from Aldeburgh
Serious Delirium from Stowmarket
Typewriter Radio from Norwich

Tickets
Tickets for each heat and the Grand Final are £4 advance / £5 door and are on sale now from the Diss Corn Hall box office 01379 652241 or online www.disscornhall.co.uk.

Judging
Each heat will be adjudicated by a panel of three judges – taken from a pool of movers and shakers from the local music industry – who will offer constructive comments to contestants after their performance. Judges confirmed to date include:
Jono Heale (Access to Music), Simon Pickering (organiser of Bury Sound), Jo Bowley (Lead singer of The BB’s and Youth Worker in music), Brett Baber (East Anglian Music Promoter), Ian Elliott (Pyramid Audio), Sandra Robinson (Publicity Officer for Bury APEX & BBC Blast), Terence Blacker (singer/songwriter & Independent columnist), David Stapleton (Manager of LP club, Bury St Edmunds) and Mick Ryder (Tour & Production Manager for Black Sabbath & UB40).

Prizes
Band DISScovery 2011 prizes will include: a 3-track EP professionally recorded at Music Outpost Studios, free state-of-the-art PA hire and services of a sound engineer for a gig in East Anglia, your own gig at the Corn Hall, a live CD of your performance at the Grand Final and the opportunity to perform in front of the crowds at Diss Carnival.

Winners of each heat’s Audience Favourite vote will win a ‘Gig Survival Kit’ courtesy of Sundown Guitars Music Shop in Diss.

Promotion
Band DISScovery will be promoting each heat and all the competing bands via facebook, myspace, press and radio including BBC Introducing who will be attending the heats and the final.

Regular Updates
For regular Band DISScovery 2011 updates including special ticket offers, follow us on Twitter @DissCornHall, go to the Diss Corn Hall and band DISScovery facebook pages or www.myspace.com/banddisscovery

Band DISScovery is organised by Diss Corn Hall, Pyramid Audio and The Music Outpost to showcase the wealth of musical talent we have in the region.

For more information ring Angela Sykes at Diss Corn Hall 01379 652239.

The Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis and it’s other species are always greeted with delight as the cold dark winter slowly turns to springtime. The Snowdrop’s genus name comes from the the Greek Gala,milk and anthos a flower, alluding to the whiteness of the vernacular name for Snowdrop.

The Botanists and especially those who wish to add new species to their life lists, strive to search the churchyards and roadside verges for different types. Here in Waveney we have some wonderful churchyards holding a variety of snowdrop species. The Greater Snowdrop Galathus elwesii is frequent in a churchyard near Beccles along with Green Snowdrop G. Woronowii.

Despite Eileen and I searching other local churchyards, we have been unable to find any more of the rarer naturalised varieties.

This year the Snowdrops flowered by mid January and what better place to see great carpets is Sotterley Churchyard and the parkland there. Look out too for the yellow Winter Aconites Eranthis hymalis. They cover the open woodland floor by the great lake and mixed with the whites of the Snowdrops gladden the heart of any walker in the dull cold winter months just before spring.

Soon the flowers will be followed by the Coltsfoot Tussilago farfara. By far the best site in the area is Beccles Quay and river bank near the dinghy hut. The flowers appear before the leaves and if you are lucky you may see the small Andrena bees that pollinate the yellow flowers. Did you know most spring flowers are yellow to attract this early spring bee to their plants?


Colin Jacobs

becclesnaturalist.blogspot.com

Saturday 19 February
LADIES 1s v Cambridge City (L) (H) 12.30 (W) 3-1 W
LADIES 2s v Cambridge University (L) (A) 12.00 0-2 L
LADIES 3s v Thetford (L) (H) 1.45 (S) OFF W/O Win
LADIES 4s v Yarmouth 2s (L) (A) 1.00 1-0 W
LADIES 5s – no game
LADIES 6s v Herlings (L) (H) 10.30 (W) 0-4 L
GIRLS Dev. v North Walsham (L) (H) 10.45 (S) OFF W/O Win

MENS 2s v Long Sutton (L) (A) 1.00 4-5 L
MENS 3s v IES (L) (H) 2.15 (W) 6-1 W
MENS 4s v Pelicans 2s (L) (H) 12.15 (S) 4-6 L
MENS 5s – no game MENS 6s v Norwich City 5s (L) (A) 1.00 6-2 W
MENS 7s v Norwich City 6s (L) (H) 4.00 (W) 8-0 W
BOYS Dev. – no game

Sunday 20 February
MENS 1s v Wimbledon (L) (A) 1.00 1-1 D
MEN’S Vets v Bishop’s Stortford (EHB Cup) (A) 2.00 2-3 L

Great Yarmouth is being urged to improve its mental wellbeing through an exciting new programme of workshops and activities being run through a partnership between Great Yarmouth & Waveney Mind, Seachange Arts and Community Wellbeing Company.

The workshops will introduce the Five Ways to Wellbeing concept, which outlines five simple actions that when practiced regularly can improve our mental wellbeing. These can be simple things such as being active, learning something new or doing something nice for a friend. Participants will also be given a Five Ways to Wellbeing diary to help them chart their own progress throughout the project.

Included in the programme is a series of Five Ways to Wellbeing Heritage Walks where participants will have the opportunity to create an arts project based on observations and what interested them on the walk. This might include film making, photography, music, dance, theatre or creative writing with participants being encouraged to showcase their work.

‘The Five Ways to Wellbeing programme is open to everyone’ explained Corrina Giles of Seachange Arts ‘It’s a great way to meet people; it encourages you to try something new and we hope people can see the benefits and progress they are making as a result of the Five Ways to Wellbeing activities.’

The project participants are also encouraged to volunteer in their communities, with the opportunity to volunteer at Great Yarmouth’s Mardi Gras which will take place on Tuesday 8th March. The event is set to celebrate the international festival that is Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day and bring the town’s King Street alive with food, music, performance, international customs and pancake themed activities.

To volunteer at Mardi Gras or to take part in the Five Ways to Wellbeing programme or for further information, please contact Corrina by email corrinaatseachangearts@googlemail.com or call 01493 846550

The King Street Mardi Gras takes place on Tuesday 8th March from 4-6pm. The event will feature entertainment, food and customs with an international theme, both in the street and inside the event’s tented area on King Street.

For further information on the event visit www.seachangearts.org.uk

The annual event commences 21 February 2011, and continues B-eat’s 22 year vision that “eating disorders will be beaten”.

The Suffolk community eating disorders team, part of Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, were awarded the b-eat quality assurance mark in summer 2010.

Gill Burgoyne, service line manager for Suffolk’s community eating disorders team, said: “The Trust has been supporting b-eat as a charity since they were first founded, and we have worked closely with them since our eating disorders service was launched in 2003”.

When awarding the assurance mark to the Suffolk team, b-eat highlighted the excellent personalised service, which includes partnership working and service user involvement, and that promotes sustained recovery.

Gill added: “Suffolk’s service is provided to those aged 18 years and above who suffer from anorexia or bulimia nervosa. It is important to note that eating disorders do not discriminate. We treat both men and women from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.”

A range of treatments is provided by the team including psychiatry, specialist dieticians, psychological therapy, physiotherapy, and specialist nurses in the community and as outpatients at the team offices in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds.

Gill also discussed the issue of body confidence and its importance: “Over the past few years television shows such as How to Look Good Naked have been raising awareness of positive body image.


“People are constantly surrounded with unrealistic and unattainable images telling people what they ‘should’ look like. Although images in the media are not a direct cause of eating disorders, these images affect people’s body confidence.


“Improving body confidence and self esteem can act as a protective factor against the development of eating disorders. It is imperative to improve the understanding of eating disorders through public health awareness, informed training and easier access to specialist service.


“Eating Disorders Awareness Week is great opportunity to remind people that to love the body you’re in!”

www.smhp.nhs.uk

B-eat provides helplines for adults and young people, online support and a UK-wide network of self-help groups to help people beat their eating disorder. You can find out more at www.b-eat.co.uk.

The King Street Mardi Gras forms part of a multi-faceted approach to regenerate the King Street area as a new cultural quarter for the town, focussed around the redeveloped St George’s Chapel.

The King Street Mardi Gras takes place on Tuesday 8 March, 6-8pm.

Join us from 4 to 6pm for plenty of masks, music and Mardi Gras mayhem!

To read or download the full Mardi Gras programme, please click >> here <<

For further information on the King Street Mardi Gras, visit www.seachangearts.org.uk

You can book for any of our events in person at the revamped Stables Box Office, by phone on 01379 652241 or on-line by visiting www.disscornhall.co.uk