As he says, it’s a wonderful sport and unique in that it can be played and enjoyed by all.

Please check out the Website Link below and contact info@lincolnshiresittingvolleyball.co.uk for more information or to talk to someone about perhaps having a go.

We will be featuring more about this sport in future too so please keep checking in for updates.

Hi Wendy

I’m not sure if you can help but thought I would try anyway.

I don’t know if you would have heard of sitting volleyball, its very similar to the standing game but is played sitting on the floor, its unique as can be played by both able and disabled players and mixed sex teams as well.

I am trying to build awareness of our sport and encourage new players but finding it hard to know where to start, it is a sport backed by Volleyball England and will be played at the Paralympic Games with Great Britain entering a team.

I don’t know if we could have a link on your site or if you can advise of other routes I could try?

Please have a look at our website to see what we do and if it is of interest.

www.lincolnshiresittingvolleyball.org.uk

I’m afraid that checking the many details and addresses etc. takes time so do please bear with us while this is going on.

We’d be delighted to hear from anyone with information or contact details etc. that we haven’t already included on the site as we’re always looking to expand the services we can offer.

We’d also love to hear from you if you have personal experience of anything we mention on the Website – good or bad.

Please do also get in touch if you feel that there’s anything we can do to improve the Website from layout suggestions to letting us know of missing links. The Douglas Bader Foundation (with the help of the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust) created it to help and inform all amputees and those with limb deficiency so any input will be to the benefit of all.

Please contact Wendy McCleave: wendy.llic@gmail.com

CALLING ALL BRAVES!

There are a few places remaining on our fantastic Bader Braves Winter Wonderland Weekend at Calvert Trust, Kielder, Northumberland from Friday 27th – Sunday 29th January 2012.

This promises to be a wonderful experience with plenty to do for the whole family as well as presenting the opportunity to experience the superb venue and magnificent scenery in the depths of winter.

We can’t promise you snow but we can pretty much guarantee you a weekend to remember.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity. If you’d like to book a place or find out more about the weekend, contact Keith Delderfield now by emailing: douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com being sure to add “Winter Wonderland” in the Subject Box, telephone him on 01442 826662 or write to the Douglas Bader Foundation, 45 Dundale Road, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 5BU

Please click HERE to download a printable version of this Flyer to give to your friends or to display where it might attract other BRAVES

The disturbing image of an amputee sitting near cups of soda was plastered in city subways on Monday, part of a series of ads aimed at shocking people out of dietary habits that can lead to obesity, said Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner.

“These are hard-hitting images because we really felt we need to drive home a point that large portions are not completely benign,” Farley told Reuters.

The advertising campaign has previously used such arresting images as consumers gulping from a frosty glass filled not with a beverage but with globs of fat.

The newest ad tells subway passengers that as portion sizes have grown over time in the food and restaurant industries, so too has the incidence of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, which it says “can lead to amputations.”

The tagline reads, “Cut Your Portions, Cut Your Risk.”

Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association, criticized the campaign for creating an “inaccurate picture” of the impact of soft drinks.

“Portion control is indeed an important piece of the solution to obesity,” he said in a statement.

“Instead of utilizing scare tactics, the beverage industry is offering real solutions like smaller portioned containers and new calorie labels that show the number of calories in the full container, right up front, to help people chose products and sizes that are right for them and their families,” he said.

The Department of Health says the campaign is necessary to warn consumers that they may be consuming more than they realize. Drink sizes at a fast food chain have quadrupled in the last five decades, while the size of a portion of French fries has doubled in that time, the department said.

Nearly 57 percent of New Yorkers are overweight or obese, the department said, and about 10 percent of New Yorkers have been told they have Type 2 diabetes.

Earlier advertisements in the anti-obesity campaign include 2009 images of oozing fat being poured into soda containers in an attempt to illustrate the link between the excessive consumption of sugary drinks and obesity.

There was some evidence that the campaign has had an impact: The percentage of adults drinking at least one “sugary drink” a day declined from about 36 percent in 2007, before the ads appeared, to about 30 percent in 2010, the department said, citing department surveys.

Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, said that portion sizes were a very important factor in determining how much people eat, or overeat. People can be fooled by larger portion sizes into thinking they are eating less than actually are.

The city has forced certain chain restaurants to prominently display calorie counts for each item on their menus. Farley, the health commissioner, said it was likely that this requirement was making some restaurants reconsider the size of their portions rather than have to publicize “embarrassingly” high calorie counts for food items.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Paul Thomasch)

A person is said to have a “phantom limb” when he or she continues to perceive sensations in limb even when the body part is no longer there, such as after amputation.

Now, a team at Neuroscience Research Australia has found that there is no default position that the phantom moves into after it forms.

“Our research suggests that the state of nerves in the limb at the time the phantom is forming is very important in determining how the phantom develops,” said team leader Prof Simon Gandevia.

Because distortions of body image, such as phantom limbs, are difficult to treat, a better understanding of the mechanisms behind their formation will help developing more effective treatments.

Prof Gandevia and colleagues conducted an experiment in which they temporarily anaesthetised participants” hands to induce a phantom limb.

The team found that the state of the nerves — ie, how much they were being stimulated — over the period when participants were losing sensation in their hand was key in determining the final perceived position of the phantom hand.

“This might also be true for phantom pain. In other words, the amount and type of nerve stimulation around the time of amputation or injury could also be important in determining the type and degree of pain perceived in the phantom limb,” Prof Gandevia said.

The findings have been published in ”The Journal of Physiology”.

My name is Ellie Hoskins, I am a third year documentary photography student studying at the University of Wales, Newport. For
my final year project I wanted to look into peoples life after injury and in particular their experience with using prosthetic
limbs. I am very interested in creating deeper awareness around people living with prosthetics and the support that they receive.
I have been working on this project for a few months and have created a set of images, however for the project to work I need to
have a range of people. I want to appeal to people would would be willing to be photographed to get in contact with me please.

In return I would be happy to give you full rights to the images. I really want to help to create awareness for the support given
to people living with prosthetics and I believe that with your help I can create a set of images that will help such a worthy cause.
I would be happy to discuss this further if you have any concerns.

I have previously worked with a charity that helps bereaved parents called SANDS and there are some examples of this project
and some of my other work on my website

http://www.elliehoskins.com/

Yours

Ellie Hoskins

Email: ellie_hoskins@hotmail.co.uk

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A QUARTER of diabetes sufferers are at risk of having their ­feet amputated because they have not had vital check-ups in the past year.

A poll to highlight World Diabetes Day today also found 22% of people with the condition had not had an annual blood or urine test to check kidney function.

And a third had never been offered advice on managing their illness. Around 3.7 million people have the condition in the UK.

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Diabetics are up to 15 times more likely to have a major amputation due to nerve and circulatory ­problems, and four times more likely to have a heart attack.

Barbara Young, of Diabetes UK, warned: “The rising tide of diabetes-related complications threatens to bankrupt the NHS.”

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Arthritis and brittle bones cause many seniors to lose mobility. More than one in five people, age 60 and older, are living with diabetes. These individuals have another potential challenge to their independence: diabetic foot ulcers that can lead to amputations.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 percent of lower-limb amputations, not caused by trauma, occur in people with diabetes. In 2004, nearly 71,000 such amputations changed people’s lives forever.

“Amputation rates can be reduced by up to 85 percent by implementing a comprehensive foot care program that encourages preventative behavior and good healthcare habits,” said Scott Covington, M.D., F.A.C.S., C.H.W.S., corporate medical director for National Healing Corporation, which manages outpatient wound care centers for hospitals across the nation.

The Mercy Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center, a National Healing managed wound center, offers these preventative tips:
• Leg and foot blood vessels can narrow and harden due to diabetes. Help fight poor circulation by keeping blood pressure and cholesterol under control. Something as simple as not crossing your legs can also improve blood flow.
• Risk factors are highest for those with longer duration of the disease who use insulin and who smoke. Stop smoking and control glucose levels – an A1c blood test can give you on overview of your average glucose levels and, typically, every percentage point drop in test results can reduce the risk of microvascular complications by 40 percent.
• Ask your healthcare provider for a thorough foot examination and to add it to your check-up routine for future visits.
• Diabetes can cause reduced sensation in the lower limbs making it hard to know if you have an injury. Check your feet daily and look between your toes for blisters, cuts and scratches. Use an unbreakable mirror for hard to see areas or ask someone to help you.
• Changes that diabetes can cause in the skin of your feet include dryness and calluses which occur more often and build up faster. Do not use chemical agents to remove calluses and corns since they can further damage your skin. See a healthcare professional to remove loose pieces of skin off your feet.
• Wear clean seamless socks and proper footwear. Medicare and many health care providers will reimburse a certain amount of money for shoes and custom inserts prescribed by a doctor.
• Seek medical treatment if a leg or foot wound has not healed in 30 days or shows signs of infection such as increased pain, redness or swelling, foul wound odor or a change in color or amount of drainage from the wound.

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A special healing sock could save thousands of diabetes patients from the trauma of amputation.
Just by wearing the garment, sufferers speed up the repair of damaged skin and prevent ulcers, a major cause of foot loss.
New to the UK, Difoprev uses a special ingredient – a moisture-boosting protein extracted from bacteria discovered only in Antarctic mud. Known for its hydrating properties, this protein is impregnated into the fabric of the sock, then slowly released directly into the tissue of the feet.

Healing: The diabetic sock that lowers the risk of foot amputation

It is predicted that Difoprev could cut the risk of foot amputation by as much as 60 per cent. At least 5,000 people with diabetes in this country undergo such drastic and debilitating surgery every year, according to Diabetes UK, and chronic ulcers are largely to blame.
These are triggered by high blood sugar levels which damage nerve endings over time, reducing the sensation in limbs. Long-term diabetes sufferers don’t notice when they cut their feet or develop a blister so they don’t get treated and this leads to ulcers.
Another symptom of diabetes is poor circulation, triggered by a build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries. Skin with a reduced blood supply does not heal well, again leading to ulcers which are prone to infection because bacteria feed on the abundance of glucose in the body. Until now, creams and gels have been the first-line treatment to keep skin hydrated.
Difoprev works by ensuring the feet are kept hydrated for 12 hours a day. The sock lasts for three days but comes with a supply of capsules containing its special moisture-boosting ingredients. These are mixed with water and  soaked into the sock which is then left to dry and then worn again.
Difoprev works by ensuring the feet are kept hydrated for 12 hours a day. The sock lasts for three days but comes with a supply of capsules containing its special moisture-boosting ingredients.
Costing around £1.50, Difoprev is available from pharmacists and is awaiting approval for use on the NHS. However, studies have shown that the 33-day treatment is effective, if repeated up to five times a year, in reducing cracks in skin caused by dryness, boosting the renewal of skin cells and increasing the formation of collagen and elastin which are necessary for healthy skin.
Michael Paterson, 52, is one of the first people in the UK to use the treatment. The historian from Brentford, West London, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 38 and takes tablets to maintain his blood sugar levels.
He used Difoprev for four weeks and says it’s made life a lot easier. ‘The key thing with diabetes is routine and I’m not good at that,’ he says. ‘You have to remember to put cream on your feet.

‘My skin is much softer and it’s so much more convenient to use.’ www.diabetic-footcare.org

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