Newbury Street and Church Street Patient Groups have developed the custom of holding a Health and Wellbeing event every couple of years but of course it’s been cancelled during the pandemic.

Now spring is officially here, Easter is over and the weather is getting warmer, it might be time to spring clean your life as well as your home.

Improving your health and wellbeing could mean exercising your brain or your body a little more and we wanted to give you some ideas.

This year’s Health and Wellbeing event is the first since 2019 and given the increasingly variable weather, an indoor event seemed wise.

So (as Chairman of Newbury Street Patient Group) I prevailed upon the Mayor to give us one of his free bookings in the Beacon for the afternoon.

We approached a number of the larger organisations around the area for sponsorship and persuaded the Coop, St Modwen, Persimmon and Assura (who own the land on which the Health Centre is built) to give us some funding.

The Hendred Ukulele Group also decided to sponsor us so the event can take place.

The theme of the event is “Keeping well in 2023 and beyond” and the idea is to give you the opportunity to meet people from some of the organisations around the area who can help you to enjoy a healthier and more fulfilled lifestyle.

There will be talks from some of our local health professionals on topics such as paediatric minor illness and self care, the roles of health visitors and social prescribers, the power of exercise and the importance of healthy blood pressure.

There will be demonstrations of how to relax and improve your fitness in a variety of ways including learning how to Morris Dance.

There will also be a demonstration of CPR and how to use a defibrillator.

There will be performances from local groups including the Hendred Ukulele Group, Caritas Children’s Choir, the Rose Hips Belly Dancers, the Glee Club, the Vale Islanders and Simply Singing.

More than sixty different organisations will be represented in the main hall at the Beacon to explain how they can help your health and wellbeing, ranging from therapists to sports clubs and social groups to gardening.

A list of the participants and the timetables of talks and demonstrations can be found at https://wellbeing.ox12.org/ where you can check the times so that you don’t miss anything.