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Aberdeen & District Fibromyalgia Support Group

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Category: Awareness

Published on Saturday, 24 September 2011 15:01

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{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=6|imageid=45|displayname=0|displaydetail=0|displaydownload=0|displaybuttons=0|displaydescription=0|float=right|displayimgrating=0}The Aberdeen support group have sent in a report on their activities for the last year. Its really good to hear what groups are doing and success that they achieve. 

Us up in Aberdeen have had a busy year fundraising awareness and just plain old fun.

Our first big event of the year was we in May held a Jumble sale and awareness day in conjunction with Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.  Aberdeen’s Salvation Army kindly let us hire a room.  We were overwhelmed with donations and we raised over £200.  Thanks again to all those who helped organise everything, made donations and those who helped out on the day.

At our support group meeting in May we had guest speaker Helen Grant, who is an Energy Healer.  She came a long and explained what energy healing is and done some demonstrations, which got good feedback.  The best thing about Helen is she does not charge her clients but does expect donation which she donates to different charities.  As you may be aware that treatments like these can be expensive, so we were delighted to hear this.

In June several group members and some family members joined us, along with various other organisations to parade down Aberdeen’s main street.  There were over 3000 participants, a range of different groups, along with performers and musicians.  The aim of the parade was to show the work and diversity of the voluntary sector in Aberdeen.  The parade went well despite the threat of rain, everyone seem to enjoy it despite the struggle for us fibromyalgia sufferers.  A big Thank you  who came along and supported us and carried out flag and banners.  A local company, Appetite kindly sponsored us for this event.

{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=6|imageid=47|displayname=0|displaydetail=0|displaydownload=0|displaybuttons=0|displaydescription=0|float=right|displayimgrating=0}Photos: Aberdeen Parade, participants: Roslyn Fowler, Beth Pratt, Margaret Duncan, Yvonne West with daughter and 2 grandsons, and Kelly Willox and partner and 2 step kids.

At our support group meeting in June we had local MP Anne Begg come in and told us about her experiences as a MP with a disability.  Anne also had a lot of knowledge about benefits and medical assessments which is of great interest within our group members.  Anne was also the Scottish representative on the Pain Coalition.  Anne kindly answered our questions and gave as much advice as she could.

On the  2^nd July for the second time we were able to have an awareness table at the Third Sector and Volunteering Fayre in Aberdeen Music Hall.  In total there were 50 different organisations there.

At our July Support group meeting we had guest speaker Sheila Gray.  She came along and done a demonstration on the Bowen Technique.  This is a gentle therapy that can give long lasting relief.  It is painless to receive.  It is a very effective for back, neck and shoulder problems, headaches, sports injury etc.

At our support group meeting in August we decided to have a fun so we held a beetle drive.  A beetle drive is a game played at social occasions, in which many round are played.  The players are put into groups of four with a communal dice, and the first player to completely draw their beetle shouts ‘beetle’, stopping the play of all groups.  The game requires paper (or a custom score sheet), pens and a dice.  The part drawn is decided by the role if the dice.  Traditional rolls are:

• 6 is for the body, of which there is one,
• 5 is for the head, of which there is one,
• 4 is for the wings, of which there is two,
• 3 is for a leg, of which there is six,
• 2 is for an antenna, which there is two,
• 1 is for an eye, which there is two.

You need a body before you can do the wings and legs and you need a head before you can add the eyes and antennas.

The winner of each group moves to the group on the right and the loser moves to the group to the left.  The ultimate winner is usually the player who completed the most beetle, or drawn the most parts.

At Augusts meeting we also had to draw the winners for our fundraising quiz sheets.  One of our group members, Sue Stephens volunteered to make up quiz sheets and collected the completed ones in, so big thanks again.  We sold the quiz sheets for 50p each and had two prizes of £5.  We made around £140.

So its been a busy year so far and there is still more to come.

Coming up in September we are holding a body shop party at our group meeting to raise money and since it was National Fibromyalgia Awareness Week at the beginning of September we thought we would do something different. 

We are also excited about this group meeting as we will be receiving a donation from a local charity golf tournament.  It was Helen Grants husband, Eddie, he came along to the group meeting with her as she done her demonstration and decided to but us forward to receive a donation, to the organisers of the charity golf tournament.  So thanks  Eddie for suggesting us.  We will be releasing a full press release to local papers after we are presented with check at the end of September.

On the 22^nd September two of our committee members was asked to go on to a local radio station, SHMU, to talk about the group.  We also have a group member going on the same show on the 15^th to talk about being a fibromyalgia sufferer.

Over the last couple of months we have been selling tickets for our 2^nd annual big raffle.  The prizes will be drawn at our AGM on Saturday 29^th October.

So we have been very busy this year, but his has not always been the case.  At the beginning of this year we decided to turn to our group members for help and asked them if they would like to become more involved with the support group meetings and do a talk or presentation about their hobbies, interests or work.  We got a good response.  Already we have had the lovely Beth come and talk about he teddies that she makes to go round schools, the teddies are all different characters in the story books.  So will carry this on throughout the next year.

We have also been approached by a group called Aberdeen Action on Disability to join them in a new project they are setting up to bring different support groups and charities together in Aberdeen.  They have set up a drop in session at their premises, 84 Spring Gardens, Aberdeen, where anyone can come along and meet different people from different organisations.  The have also welcomed us to go along and represent the group and also welcome all our members to come along to these drop in sessions.

We have a busy year and hopefully next one will be as successful as this year.