May 2017 Spring Edition

ORGANISING TEAM NEWS IN THIS ISSUE

Purple stars 2

Supporter spotlight 2/3

Summer meeting 4

Fund raising info 4

Diary dates 5

Useful contacts 5

Torbay and South Devon Group

The Torbay Group organising team meet regularly in the Members Room at Torbay Hospital. Everyone is welcome to attend. Forth-coming events are advertised via Facebook and on our webpage.

WORLD IBD DAY

In 2017 World IBD Day is on May 19th. Each year the day is big-ger and better than previous years. It is a brilliant oppor-tunity to raise awareness, whether in your workplace or amongst friends. You can take part simply by wearing purple on the day and talking to friends about IBD and how it affects you or someone you know, or how about organizing a cake stall at work? (who doesn’t like cake?!),or maybe doing something mad like a sky-dive?! Crohn’s and Colitis UK Torbay Group will have an awareness stand at Torbay Hospital in the new reception on Level 4. If you have a hospital appoint-ment or visit on the day why not pop along to the main en-trance on Level 4 and say hello?

derstand how challeng-ing it can be to live with IBD. Would a regular coffee morning or evening drink be something you would like to be a part of? Do let us know what would work best for you and any other suggestions you may have for regular meet-ings would be much ap-preciated! Our contact details are on page 5, we look for-ward to hearing from you, or seeing you at one of our forthcoming events.

Helen

Welcome to our Spring newsletter highlighting our local events happening over the coming months.

The Torbay Organising Team are volunteers who meet monthly and work together with the Gastroenterology Team at Torbay Hospital to provide support and information, and promote IBD awareness in the local area. We also organise regular fundraisers and are tremendously grateful for the donations given to Crohn’s and Colitis UK from so many of you who are living with, or know someone who is living with IBD.

We are aware that many of you would welcome the oppor-tunity to meet on a more informal basis to share your own experiences, ask advice and offer support to others who un-

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PURPLE STARS We thank you all once again if you have supported us in any way. Teignmouth Community College 6th Form are worthy recipients of a plethora of virtual purple stars after they presented us with a cheque for £115.65. They chose to support us after one of their peers was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease so have succeeded in raising both awareness and funds. Thank you! We were also fortunate to receive a donation of £100 from Dartmoor Vale Rotary Club. Please accept these stars with thanks.

Thank you

SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT

We love to hear the story be-hind any fundraising, and were so pleased when 17 year old student Sophia Heath from Newton Abbot chose Crohn’s and Colitis UK as her nominated charity. She has set herself a huge challenge: a 200 mile walk from Torcross to Land’s End. This feat will take place during two weeks in July, Sophia will be accompanied by her friend Abi who has chosen Shelterbox as her nominated charity. Planning for the walk is well under way. The girls are walking around 17 miles a day and camping along the route so will each be carrying their supplies.

Why Sophia is fundraising for CCUK “I decided to raise money for Crohn’s and Co-litis UK because I felt it was an important charity which needed supporting and I knew people that Crohn’s has affected and there-fore wanted to help them. I have previously raised money for both national and local char-ities but never seen the money go directly to helping people or seen the affects it has had, and by choosing a charity which I knew peo-ple were associated with I thought that the money might have a visible impact. I would like to think the money will go towards helping to find a cure or to make people’s lives easier and if this would help find a cure or a form of treatment then that would be amazing.”

Sophia

The quiz was very well supported, and together with a ‘name the bear’ and raffle raised the fabulous total of £460 which will be shared between Crohn’s & Colitis UK and Shelterbox. You can follow Sophia via her blog: sophiaswalk2017.weebly.com or sponsor her via her just giving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Sophia-Heath6 I am sure you will all join us in wishing Sophia and Abi the best of luck (and good weather) for their walk.

They will be joined by friends and family who will support and encourage them along the coastal route. To give their fundraising a further boost Sophia and Abi recently organised a fun quiz. A super evening was had by all who at-tended, with brain power fuelled on the evening by the plentiful supply of pizza and cake.

Congratulations to the winning Quiz team who also had the youngest team member; baby Isaac who was assisted by his older relatives.

Page 3 Crohn’s and Colitis UK Torbay and South Devon Group Newsletter

Q. What is your favourite food/meal? A. Macaroni cheese or kasespatzle (editor’s note:German mac cheese!) Q. Who is/are your hero/s? A My mum because no matter how small or big the problem is I’m facing she’ll tell me I’m being an idiot but still try and sort it out. And Barack Obama because I think he was pretty snazzy and he was able to successfully become president in a country which had previously been part of the slavery movement and black people had faced extreme racism, but he was still able to become president. Also Cara Delevingne because alt-hough she has fought with her own mental health issues she is still hilarious.

Q. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? A. Hashtag (satirically), Palo & Cheers me dears Q. What are your hobbies/what do you do in your spare time? A. I enjoy taking dogs for walks, sometimes walk-ing in general, eating, going to Dartmoor, volun-teering, painting, making things, relaxing, or spending time with my family when we’re on holi-day Q. What is your greatest fear? A. Heights, pain or losing everyone Q. How do you relax? A. Taking dogs for walks, reading a book or at the beach, travelling to new places. Q. How would you describe yourself in three words? A. Talkative, weird, umm... Q. What is your ideal holiday destina-tion? A. India or Morocco because of the cul-ture and how different it is to everywhere else

SPOTLIGHT

Q. If you were stranded on a desert island what would you miss? A. Either other people occasionally, food, something to do & animals Q. What three things would you take with you?

A. Water, food and books especially on learning a new language, or a boat but I guess then I wouldn’t be on the island?

Q. Favourite book? A. The Book Thief or Shadow Hunter series by Cas-sandra Clare Q. What is your dream career? A. Environmental architect, in the UN, being the first woman on Mars, inventing something which will save the world or doing something that will make a differ-ence or that involves travelling to new places. Q. What is the most important lesson that life has taught you so far? A. That food is the most important part of everyday? Leaving family or friends for months or just a few days or weeks can be the hardest thing to do. That you’re going to miss out on a huge amount of experi-ences if you don’t get involved.

Q. What has been your greatest achieve-ment/accomplishment? A. Flying a plane, walking 100 miles in four days, doing an A level in year 10 Q.Favourite guilty pleasure? A.Eating a whole Mozzarella like an apple or whole choco-late bars or taking Otto for a walk instead of actually doing the work I have to do

Page 4 Crohn’s and Colitis UK Torbay and South Devon Group Newsletter

INVITATION TO OUR SUMMER MEETING

Torbay and South Devon Group

Summer Meeting and AGM

On Wednesday 7 June 2017

At the Horizon Centre, Torbay Hospital

7pm

A super evening with our IBD nurses Anita Coulson & Becky George talking about the

changing role of the IBD Nurse, and Sarah Jones, Dietician who will talk about Therapeutic

Diets in IBD.

Light refreshments and a Raffle, and the opportunity to chat to like minded people.

All welcome at this free event. Hope to see you there.

We would like to thank Anita, Becky and Sarah for agreeing to speak at our meeting. If you would like more information about our Summer Meeting or any of our forthcoming events please contact us via Fa-cebook message, email or phone. As always before making a special journey please check events have not been affected by adverse weather etc. Some events may also require tickets.

FUNDRAISING & EVENT PLANNING If you would like to host your own event or take part in an organized charity event to raise funds for Crohn’s and Colitis UK we’d love to hear from you. We can help by providing information leaflets, balloons, and even running vests and tee-shirts. We can also help with raf-fle prizes etc. In addition we can promote your event amongst our supporters and group members. Don’t forget to take lots of photos as we love to see them! We also enjoy reading the stories behind the events so are keen to feature as many activities as possible.

Page 5 Crohn’s and Colitis UK Torbay and South Devon Group Newsletter

CONTACT US Torbay and South Devon Group

Website: www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/torbay

Email: torbay@groups.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk

Crohn’s and Colitis UK

45 Grosvenor Road, St Albans AL1 3AW

enquiries@crohnsandcolitis.org.uk

www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk

Charity registered in England Number 1117148

Charity registered in Scotland Number SC038632

A company limited by guarantee in England:

company number 5973370

CROHN’S AND COLITIS SUPPORT

Confidential support from trained Crohn’s and

Colitis UK volunteers who have personal

experience of living with Ulcerative Colitis or

Crohn’s Disease

0121 737 9931

Monday-Friday 1pm-3.30pm & 6.30pm-9pm

INFORMATION SERVICE

Trained Crohn’s and Colitis UK Information

Officers answer questions on IBD & local

Group information

0300 222 5700

Mon-Wed & Fri 9am-5pm, Thu 9am-1pm (except

English bank holidays)

Answer phone service outside these hours

DISABILITY BENEFITS

Call the Information Service on 0300 222 5700 to

arrange a telephone appointment with a trained

volunteer for help with Disability Living

Allowance or Personal Independence Payment

PARENT TO PARENT

Call the Information Service on 0300 222 5700 to

arrange a telephone appointment to talk to

another parent who has a child with IBD.

@CrohnsColitisTO

The Torbay Group has made every reasonable effort to ensure the content of this newsletter is accurate, but accepts no responsibility for any errors or omission. The views of the contributors do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Crohn’s and Colitis UK and no reference in this newsletter to any product or service is intended as a recommendation.

If you have received this newsletter by post and would be happy to receive future editions by email please provide your name, membership number and email address to groups@crohnsandcolitis.org.uk This will save the group valuable funds which can be used to benefit all those affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

DIARY DATES

Our stall will be on The Den in Teignmouth on:

20 May 17 June 15 July

19 August and on The Green at Dawlish on:

3 June 1 July

5 August As well as displaying information leaflets etc the stall has donated items for sale so is a great op-portunity to grab a bargain and also have a chat to team members. Hope to see you on one of these dates.

Crohns and colitis torbay group

Held at 7pm in the Members Room, Torbay Hospital. Usually on the last Monday of the month with a few exceptions. Diary dates for 2017: Monday 22 May Wednesday 7 June (Summer meeting & AGM) Monday 31 July Monday 25 September Monday 30 October Monday 27 November (nb no meeting in August or December) Everyone welcome, please contact us for agenda or information. These are organising team meetings where plans are made for raising funds and aware-ness.

BARN DANCE Saturday 21 October 2017 Contact us for more details