On the 23rd of June Friends of Welwyn Care Homes were delighted to welcome the Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield, Michal Siewniak to our AGM at the Centre for Unity in WGC.

 

This small voluntary group has for the past 15 years been living our motto ‘ Friendship, Companionship and Laughter’ in our regular visits to several of our local care homes and thus trying, as our mission statement says, to bring the Community into the Care Home. While staff in our local homes work very hard to care for their residents, groups such as ours help to combat the isolation that residents may feel. We would welcome more volunteer visitors to extend their friendship to more of our local care homes( you can find out more here: https://friendsofwelwyncarehomes.org.uk )

Many more than our volunteer visitor members attended, attracted by our talk ‘Fitness for the Long Run’- the importance of exercise in later life, which was very ably presented by Suzina Blackman, a very experienced exercise professional. She even led us in a demonstration exercise session!

 

There are many opportunities locally to find a suitable class run by Suzina ( https://www.homefitnessherts.co.uk/chair-based-balance-classes ) and others, some are free and the others are low cost. Many include post-exercise refreshments!

 

And if you look at https://www.movingmore.co.uk/ you will find a huge range of other types of activity from walking and dance to circus skills!

 

It was also mentioned that Hatfield Leisure Centre has a Wellness hub with machines suitable for those who couldn’t contemplate a regular gym or who are rehabilitating after injury, surgery have long term disability or illness ( https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/welwyn-hatfield/hatfield-leisure-centre/innerva-hatfield-leisure-centre ).

In his remarks at the end, the Mayor said that he had found the meeting inspirational and expressed his support for both the subjects of the evening as they have an important role to play in reducing isolation and loneliness and helping people to live better longer, physically, mentally and spiritually. Indeed, he pointed out that our meeting was taking place during Loneliness Awareness week.

 

If anyone is inspired to be a volunteer visitor, please do contact me, Anne Horsman on 07771931063 or friendsofwelwyncarehomes@gmail.com

 

Yours sincerely

 

Anne Horsman

 

Chair, Friends of Welwyn Care Homes