Health Check @ Farrington Park

The first event organised by Cam Valley Rotary Club (a satellite club of Chelwood Bridge) has taken place at Farrington Park, and was both well supported and worthwhile.

We decided to offer a free health check. Whilst the health check was open to all, we deliberately arranged the event to coincide with a Men’s Senior golf day as men are notoriously reluctant to visit their doctor with health concerns.  We felt that if the checks could help identify just one health issue for someone, then the event would be worthwhile.

Fortunately, we have a doctor in the satellite club with relevant knowledge, and he was able to suggest 6 potential organisations that might be able to provide the professional check for us. All 6 were contacted and the British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS) were local, supportive and able to help! 

We were aware that the health check would reflect the area of interest and expertise of the organisation that undertook the check for us. Therefore, in consultation with the BIHS we agreed that BMI and blood pressure would be the scope of each assessment. Each person checked would be asked whether they would be available for involvement in further studies which may be as simple as providing feedback on literature proposed to the general public to involvement in trials of drugs or treatments.

Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club kindly supported the event with publicity and Farrington Park assisted by allowing us to advertise on various golf and health club notice boards. On the day, each golf score-card had a health check reminder attached and members of the Cam Valley Rotary actively encouraged all visitors to Farrington Park to attend the health check.  

The team from BIHS were extremely helpful, friendly and professional and offered straight forward feedback following a traffic-light system -

· 50 checks were undertaken

· 10% were in the healthy “green” range

· Over 33% were in the “red” range and approximately 10% were advised to visit their GP

We felt that the morning was successful and particularly helpful in increasing people’s awareness of their individual health situation, with many realising that their BMI was a cause for concern and for action.

We are particularly grateful to BIHS for their professional and friendly expertise and to Farrington Park for providing an excellent space for us to conduct the checks and for being most supportive of the event. 

Alan Smith, Chair. Cam Valley Satellitte Club to Chelwood Bridge