Stroke Awareness Week 2010
HAILSHAM ROTARY CLUB TAKE PART IN STROKE AWARENESS WEEK
Hailsham Rotary Club carried out a number of voluntary blood pressure checks on local residents in The Quintins Shopping Centre in Hailsham on Saturday 17th April 2010 from 9 am to 1 pm.
A total of 51 members of the public were checked by Doctors Colin Tourle and Gerald Htoon (with assistance from Moyra Davidson) and of those only 2 had abnormally high blood pressure and were referred to their General Practioners for further examination. This was a dramatic reduction from the previous year when over 20 cases of people with high blood pressure were discovered.
This year the Hailsham Rotary Club had an additional stand which aimed to increase the awareness of prostate cancer in the male population. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and 35,000 individuals are diagnosed with the disease each year. In addition 70% of adults do not know what the prostate gland does. Vivien Pipe from The Prostate Cancer Charity was on hand to give out information leaflets on the subject and give advice on the subject generally.
The President of Hailsham Rotary Club, Francis Hodge said “My chosen theme for my year as President is Mens’ Health and Prostate Cancer is one of the causes I have decided to give support to. I am therefore delighted that we have extended our awareness activities to include prostate cancer which is a natural progression from our work in connection with stroke awareness. The dramatic reduction in the number of blood pressure cases referred to GP’s this year is hopefully a sign that the awareness campaign is working”
This is the eighth year running that the Hailsham Rotary Club has supported the health awareness campaign.