THE June meeting of Parkway WI (Ledbury) was held on an afternoon of heavy showers which was reflected in the low attendance. The President Val Graham welcomed everyone with a special welcome to our speaker Dr. Dave Jeffrey from the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

We were given a handout which showed us statistics for the past 5years; from this we could see far more people have Diabetes than Cancer, Coronary heart Disease, Stroke/mini stroke or Dementia and it has increased by 65% over the last decade. Dr. Dave told us of the programme they are rolling out in Herefordshire which is targeting people 40-60 whose doctors feel are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They will be offered a 6 week programme to educate them on the importance of diet & exercise so as to avoid developing type 2 diabetes. There are some people who are unfortunately at risk of inheriting diabetes, apart from these people it appears to be a fast growing epidemic. At present there are only a few surgeries signed up to the programme but they are hoping to roll it out to many more surgeries in Herefordshire in the not too distant future.

After the refreshments were enjoyed we resumed with the business part of our meeting. Apologise were received from 7 members and the Secretary Eileen Hunt read the minutes of the last meeting and we discussed the points arising together with forth coming events. Our social time this month was to name the places in the picture quiz which June Tomkins had put together for our amusement.

The next meeting of Parkway WI is on 12 July at 2pm in the Baptist Hall, Homend, Ledbury. Our speaker is Rebecca Redmonds who will be speaking on the Power of the Mind.

MAUREEN THOMAS