Monthly V.I. Link - Issue 27 January 2022 How do we start this first 2022 bulletin? Ideally saying Happy New Year and hope you all had a fabulous time over the festive period. Truthfully, for some of us it didn’t quite turn out as we had hoped thanks to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. However, from your feedback, we gather that symptoms have been mild for those who have had their vaccines and have no underlying health conditions so, fingers crossed, we’re moving on! Either way, it’s time to get on with our lives and enjoy 2022, however we can do that! This year is a big year, not just for the Queen but for us too! We are celebrating 100 years of Bury Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted. What an achievement and we do hope you will join us to celebrate at the various events and activities planned throughout the year. As we’re taking a ‘slow re-opening’ until transmissions have reduced, our launch event, a Musical Celebration in the Centre, due to take place on 24th January will now take place on Monday 28th February with our friends Geoff Kenyon and Sid Pritchard. Then in March, we are delighted to announce our ‘Afternoon Tea with an MBE’ event! The amazing Lora Faiche, gold medallist Paralympian, will be joining us at The Masonic Hall on Thursday 10th March, 1.30pm for cake and conversation. Lora will be inspiring us all with her journey and experiences as a top athlete competing and living with sight loss. Further details of these events and more are given later in the bulletin. The past two years have been tough for everyone and we do hope that this year, together, we can enjoy celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and our own Centenary. I look forward to seeing you and wish you a very Happy 2022. Jill Logan - CEO Coronavirus Update. The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has proved to be highly transmissible during this festive period. Hopefully, we have reached the peak as, at the time of going to press, for the week 2-8 January, Bury had 3787 reported cases of coronavirus, a slight decrease from the previous week of 126. Current statistics appear to confirm that having the vaccination, if you are able, is the best way to protect yourself and your family. If you have not already had your vaccine, or booster, you can attend one of Bury Council’s Walk-in Centres or pre-book a Covid-19 appointment located in Bury, Ramsbottom, Radcliffe and Prestwich. Details are available on line via www.bury.gov.uk/coronavirus-vaccine or for support to book call 0161 983 2300 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). Alternatively, you can access the NHS website www.nhs.uk/book-a-coronavirus-vaccination or if you cannot book on line, you can call 119 free of charge. If you have difficulties communicating or hearing, or are a British Sign Language (BSL) user, you can use textphone 18001 119. If you do test positive, and have symptoms, remember to self-isolate for 10 full days. Providing you have no symptoms, and record two negative lateral flow tests on day 9 and 10, you are able to finish self-isolation after this period. Please note, the period of isolation is being reviewed on a regular basis so do visit www.bury.gov.uk/coronavirus or ring 0161 253 5515 for updates. As previously reported, wearing face coverings are compulsory in shops and other settings such as banks, post offices and hairdressers, as well as on public transport, unless individuals are exempt. Self-isolation support Bury’s Community Hubs are still available to help people who are clinically extremely vulnerable who are isolating and do not have friends or family nearby. Call 0161 253 5353 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) for information or to talk to the team about what help you might need.   Emotional wellbeing support Bury’s Getting Help Line offers advice, guidance and signposting to local services, available Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm, you can reach the team on 0161 464 3679. Keeping Yourself Well In Winter We thought these hints and tips might be useful for this time of the year, taken from the NHS website. Follow these tips to keep you and your family warm and well at home: * if you're not very mobile, are 65 or over, or have a health condition, such as heart or lung disease, heat your home to at least 18C * keep your bedroom at 18C all night if you can – and keep bedroom window closed * if you're under 65, healthy and active, you can safely have your home cooler than 18C, as long as you're comfortable * use a hot water bottle or electric blanket to keep warm in bed – but do not use both at the same time * have at least 1 hot meal a day – eating regularly helps keep you warm * have hot drinks regularly * draw curtains at dusk and keep doors closed to block out draughts * get your heating system checked regularly by a qualified professional Help with heating costs You may be able to claim financial and practical help with heating your home. Grants available include the winter fuel payment and the cold weather payment. Details via www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment or www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment) For more information on how to reduce your bills and make your home more energy efficient call the Simple Energy Advice helpline on 0800 444 202. It's worth claiming all the benefits you're entitled to as soon as winter begins. Good To Share: This month’s information is rather topical during this winter period. It was an issue raised by one of the members of the Glaucoma Group when she went to her local pharmacy to purchase some Beechams Powders. The pharmacist said she shouldn’t be taking these due to her condition. When asked why, he gave the following explanation. Any decongestants will adversely affect the pressure in the eye of patients with a certain type of glaucoma. Therefore, he recommends that anybody with glaucoma should not take, Beechams powders, Lem-Sip, Sudafed and anything which contains a decongestant. News and Upcoming Events: During January, we have paused our weekly ‘Drop Ins’ to ensure we keep everyone as safe as possible. Our regular, specific group events are being reviewed on a weekly basis and all attendees are being contacted prior, to confirm if the groups are going ahead. However, if you are unsure, or haven’t received a call, do ring the Centre prior to coming in to save any wasted journeys. We are so sorry to have to take this action but, as always, your health and safety is our primary concern, and appreciate your understanding. On a more positive note…. 2022 – Our Centenary Year – how are you going to help us celebrate our special year? Do you have any ideas, maybe as a group or individual – we’d love to hear from you. Maybe you would like to do a sponsored 100 jumps, your group are interested in a ‘tea and cake celebration’ afternoon or you have a contact at work/school/business who would like to do something. Perhaps you would like to run our annual Quiz this year? Whatever it is, we are happy to support with our ‘Centenary Pack’, providing sponsor sheets, promotion, designing posters. Call 0161 763 7014 and leave your details with Alex and one of our ‘Centenary Planners’ will be in touch to discuss further. Carole and Mags have already come up with a brilliant idea for their Friday Lunches. From March onwards, they will be promoting a monthly, ‘Meals through the Decades’ celebrating each decade with a meal based on that era. So, in March they will be serving a meal you might expect in 1922. I do know that Carole and Mags are looking at appropriate music and dressing accordingly, with prizes for guests in the best period outfit so get your thinking caps on! It sounds like a lot of fun! More details on how to book and menus will be in our February bulletin. As previously mentioned, our first celebration is the Musical Entertainment afternoon with Geoff Kenyon and Sid Pritchard which has now been re-arranged for Monday 28th February, 1.30pm-3pm. If you would like to join us, please contact the office to book your place. On Thursday 10 March we are planning to hold a ‘Afternoon Tea and MBE – Conversation with Lora Fachie MBE, Paralympic cyclist. Lora is visually impaired and grew up in a family where blindness was not a barrier to achieving. She has always enjoyed sport, participating in athletics and then in 2009 in cycling, competing on a tandem with a fully sighted athlete. Lora has competed at three Paralympics winning gold at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games. Lora has a wealth of experience and a varied and remarkable skill set to motivate us all to achieve your dreams.  Alongside her sporting career she has a successful food and nutrition blog and hosts cookery demonstrations for the visually impaired. The afternoon promises to be both fascinating and enjoyable. Tickets on sale from 1 February. Please ring the Centre, or check our website for further details.   We do have a number of other events in the planning stage including a ‘100 Voices’ event at The Met in June so watch this space! Going forward, we are hopeful that all our regular events will be back in February. This includes the new ‘Café Crawl’ which again, was due to start in January. However, Di Webb will be starting the outings on Thursday 17th February, meeting at the Centre for 10am, leaving at 10.30am for Tina’s Tea Rooms at the Art Gallery. If you are interested in joining Di, just come along to the Centre on 17th at 10am. Quiz Night: Ever the optimists, we are looking to hold our Annual Quiz Night, complete with pasty and peas, end of February/beginning of March. However, with the current situation, we do have a back up plan of our Virtual Quiz if required. The details will be confirmed in our next bulletin but we will also give regular updates on our website and via Facebook and Twitter if you are able to access. It was A Wrap!! Thank you so much to everyone who supported our Gift wrapping at Christmas. Many thanks to Wendy at Tesco, Bury and Jill at Asda, Pilsworth for letting us have our ‘wrapping station’ in their respective stores. (Ps. We will be back for Valentines…..!) And a huge thanks to the staff team at Bury Markets who stepped into the breach when we had to decline the space offered by The Millgate Shopping Centre due to location. Continuing our thank you’ s for, the stall holders for making us feel so welcome, members of the public for their support and, of course, the amazing volunteers who helped out on the various stall. We raised a terrific £1800 over the two weeks which was just brilliant and everyone had a great time too! Funding News: There are a number of ways to help us raise much needed fund and ensure we continue to support people living with sight loss for the next 100 years! We listed them below: Amazon Smile: We are now registered with Amazon Smile which means, if you order items via Amazon Smile and nominate us as your chosen charity, Amazon Smile donates 0.5% of each eligible purchase to the Society. Spread the word! If you require any assistance to register, please contact the office and we’d be happy to help. Text via your phone. Just use your phone and Text to: 70450, with the message BURY to donate £5. You will also receive details to make a regular donation if you wish. Co-Op Community Fund: we are a nominated charity. If you are a member (just £1.00 to join), go to the Co-op website and nominate us to be your local cause. Facebook: We now have a ‘Donate’ button on our Facebook page. Regular donation: direct into our Bank. For more details, contact Jill at the Society. jill.logan@buryblindsociety.org or 0161 763 7014 100 Club: Our Monthly Prize Draw. Just £1.00 for a number and you can ‘purchase’ as many as you like! 50% of the money raised is distributed in prizes and the other half contributes directly to BBS. Application packs available from the office. December winners were, no. 273 - £121.20; No. 46 - £60.60; No. 404 - £20.20. Wills: Why not remember our Charity in your will? Your donation will help local people living with sight loss access our services in the future. If you have donated recently to our Charity, we would like to thank you for your support. It does make a difference. Special Thoughts: To Trish Smith who had a very nasty fall just before Christmas and ended up spending the festive period in hospital. Trish wanted us to thank one of our volunteers, Jonathon Hartley, for his kindness and support when she had her fall. Jonathon stayed with her until her family arrived. Our thoughts are very much with Dorothy McNulty who sadly lost her son, Eddie, in January. Eddie was known to many of us and it was a shock to us all to hear the news. We were also sorry to hear of the recent passing of Kathleen Parkinson, one of our members. Our condolences to any of our members or their families who have lost loved ones during this month. We would like thank members families for thinking of us at such a sad time when requesting donations for the Society. These donations will enable us to continue providing support for future members. Just for Fun. Brain Teaser: Let’s give your brain a ‘work out’! Did you know that doing brain teasers and logic problems can improve short term memory loss? Let’s try this one: ‘It stalks the countryside with ears that can’t hear. What is it? ‘Take 5’ Quiz. This month’s answers: 1. The Snowman was shown on TV for the first time on Boxing Day of which year? 1982 2. Which British monarch delivered the first ever Christmas message? George V. 3. Which March sister opens LM Alcott’s Little Women by grumbling “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents? Jo 4. What year was Clement C Moore’s poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’ first published? 1823 5. How many gifts were given in ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas carol? 364 January Quiz: 1. What country has the highest life expectancy?  2. Where would you be if you were standing on the Spanish Steps? 3. What year was the United Nations established?  4. How many faces does a Dodecahedron have?  5. Queen guitarist Brian May is also an expert in what scientific field?  A slightly shorter bulletin this month following all the festive excitement but now we can all look forward to lighter nights and longer days in the coming months. Stay safe and well and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Jill and all the Bury Blind Society Team Registered Charity No. 1102525 Services We Offer: * Eye Talk Support Sessions * Early Intervention & Rehabilitation service * Benefit Information * A Listening Ear * Information and Guidance Service * Comprehensive Resource Centre * Regular Social Activities * Hospital Information Service * Telephone Befriending Services * Visual Impairment Awareness Training * Symbol Cane Training * Referral for Mobility training. * Daily Living Skills. * Specific Eye Condition Groups * Skills for Seeing (“Eccentric Viewing”) * Specialist Equipment Demonstrations * Support Clinic * Drop-In Centre For more information contact the Centre on 0161 763 7014. 2