BAPS Charities Organises Community Health Fair
BAPS Charities, in conjunction with various leading healthcare organisations and charities, held an interactive community health fair on Saturday 11 July 2015 at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London.
A key objective of the event, which was attended by 475 people, was to consolidate the extensive health awareness activities that are provisioned to the local community by BAPS Charities throughout the year, and to convey important messages of safe and healthy living.
Amongst the guests who were present at the Mandir included Leader of Brent Council Cllr Muhammed Butt, and Simon Gillespie and Bridget Turner, Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Care Improvement at the British Heart Foundation and Chairs of Brent and Harrow Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Activities available throughout the day from 10am to 5pm included screening for heart disease and diabetes, which were examined through blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and height and weight checks. Individual advice on medicines as well as feet and dental checks were also available.
In addition, with the London Ambulance Service, attendees were offered emergency life support training. Experts encouraged organ, bone marrow and blood donation, while others emphasised the importance of recognising symptoms of mental illness, dementia, cancer and being aware of children’s health and safety in the home.
Simon Gillespie spoke of his positive experiences and the specific benefits for members of the community through the event. He said: “It has been a great pleasure to be here today with so many other charities involved with the wonderful work that BAPS Charities has been doing. It is really important that people can engage with healthcare professionals in settings and surroundings that they are familiar and comfortable in – so that they can ask questions and listen to the responses in a way that’s not stressful.”
A young member of the local community mentioned the “positive conversations I was able to have with professionals regarding a wide range of health issues that concern me as a South Asian woman.”
The programme was supported by a number of charity organisations, including the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Culture Dementia, Mind Harrow, Age UK, KIDS, and Breast Cancer Care.
