All in a great cause

08 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

On Saturday a group of mainly women from a few local classes, a couple of husbands were dragged along,  got together to do a charity zumba session. With our zumba instructors for 2 hours we salsa’d, shimmied, jumped, twisted and turned in aid of the charity Women’s Aid.

Women’s Aid is a national charity dedicated to the welfare and protection of women and children who suffer domestic abuse. They have been around for more than 30 years working to promote women’s rights, to try and prevent domestic abuse and to support those affected by this despicable crime.

We had a great time even though we didn’t know half the routines as the instructors took it in turns to lead a routine and we only knew the dances our instructors did in our weekly classes. But that didn’t matter because we still got the exercise trying to catch up!

I did take some photos but I don’t think my fellow zumberers would appreciate being shown online having just done 2 hours of intense exercise, I certainly don’t want to show you all my red face and my sweaty hair stuck to my head!

Here is a link to Women’s Aid website  http://www.womensaid.org.uk

 

zumbaultimateclasses

A cruel illness

03 May 2013 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

On this day 19 years ago I lost my dad to Motor Neurone Disease (MND).  He was diagnosed with this dreadful illness 2 years before he died,  after displaying symptoms of slurred speech and being unsteady on his feet. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the symptoms to escalate, only months later he was in a wheelchair and he was very soon bed bound and unable to care for himself at all.

For me the worst symptom to cope with was that he was unable to speak for much of his illness, it was very frustrating for him as he couldn’t communicate without the aid of a typing machine and towards the end of his life that was almost impossible for him to use. After he died I found myself watching the video of my first wedding over and over just to hear his voice because I couldn’t remember what it sounded like.

My dad was extremely fit and walked everywhere before he got ill, this disease cruelly took his independence and life. Even though it’s been 19 years I still find his illness and death hard to deal with. I wish he could have met my sister in law and my nieces and I wish he could have seen the strapping young men my sons have grown into. But I’m not sure what he would have made of me running off and marrying a young Turk!!

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Unbelievably there is still only one charity dedicated to MND. They seem to be making some breakthrough with finding the cause and possible treatments but still seem to be a long way off offering anything concrete.

June is MND awareness month and there are plenty of fundraising events to get involved with, so that more lovely dosh can be raised to carry on the good work. Check out the link below and let’s see if we can kick this foul disease up the butt!!

<a title=”Fundraising: Fundraising – There are many exciting ways you can raise much-needed funds for the MND Association – either as Get Yourself Involved or through your Get Your Business Involved or to Do Your Own Thing.” href=”http://www.mndassociation.org/ca6ac6fe17b24e5298a6d1ca80382399?