Gaynor Leech Guest Blog - August 2021
"June and July have been two extremely busy months for L-W-O Community and the new website has been well received and as an ongoing project it is taking shape nicely. I have spent my time writing articles, attending conferences, courses, webinars and learning new skills but all aimed at moving us forward.
It has taken me a couple of years to work out as a patient advocate (with a non-medical background) how to introduce more information on Lymphatic Health. Two opportunities arose, one from a piece Margaret Sneddon wrote on LinkedIn which inspired the #getmoving_everybodycan videos.
This joint initiative with the British Lymphology Society (BLS) has gone better than I could have imagined as the #Find3 minutes video at the time of writing has had 9.2k viewings. To keep up to date with all our videos please subscribe to our YouTube channel. In addition I was invited to write an accompanying article which was published in BLS News & Views and is out now for members.
The second opportunity arrived when Craig Davidson one of our support group members asked?
Have you heard of endolymph and perilymph?
Have you heard of these two? I hadn’t, between Craig and myself, we researched these two mystery lymph fluids and we have presented them in a non-medical format that is easy to understand.
Who remembers as a child spinning around? When you stop, you are left feeling dizzy and you are swaying all over the place you may even fall read more… This has led to a new series on Lymphatic Health being developed, which I will be working on with members of our community over the next few months.
DEAR JANE
In addition to this, I am thrilled that questions from our members are being answered by Jane Wigg. This has been in the planning since January, but time constraints meant we had to postpone to 1st August 2021. With the wording from Jane Wigg, Mary Fickling has produced a video starting with the first question from L-W-O Community members, turning the question and answer into an educational learning tool, that is one of the best I have seen. We were thrilled too that Jane has produced a real time video of lymph moving which is fascinating. This video too is shared in the August newsmagazine.
If 2020/21 has taught us anything it is the importance of Community Engagement, I believe passionately about working with patients, patient groups or organisations, because this is how we raise the profile of Lymphoedema and inform people that taking care of our lymphatic health improves our overall health and wellbeing. See what we have been up to …
Finally, I am taking a break in August to celebrate two life changing events, the first will be my 70th birthday. When I first started L-W-O, my mantra was "I cannot see me doing this in 10 years’ time" - well I have lived with Lymphoedema for over 10 years,and L-W-O will soon be celebrating our 8th year in September. Suddenly I feel as if I have loads to do, so will not be hanging up my boots just yet.
The other life changing event will be our Golden Wedding Anniversary, that’s 50 years. When we married our friends and family gave us 6 months. Over the years like most couples, we have weathered the storms and embraced the sunshine. We have three amazing sons, three lovely daughter-in-law’s, eleven grandchildren, one great granddaughter and a bump (great grandchild) who will be born early in 2022.
My hubby does not always understand why I do what I do (it’s a man thing) but throughout our life together he has always supported what I do. With him and my family by my side they keep me grounded, their love and support mean everything to me. Our garden party will be much smaller than originally planned but we will have a party nonetheless!"
LWO COMMUNITY
