The new Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club ran its first ‘Know Your Blood Pressure’ event on Saturday 26th April 2008 with alarming results. During the two hour event 35 men and woman of all ages had a blood pressure check carried out by medical professionals. Five had higher than usual blood pressure and were encouraged to visit their GP for further checks.
For further details Read Blog Article below.

News Release

1st May 2008

For immediate release

The new Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club ran its first ‘Know Your Blood Pressure’ event on Saturday 26th April with alarming results. During the two hour event 35 men and woman of all ages had a blood pressure check carried out by medical professionals. Five had higher than usual blood pressure and were encouraged to visit their GP for further checks.

Madeleine Mills, event organiser, said “This demonstrates the real need for this type of free service provided by the Rotary Club and we will definitely be running it again next year. As a pilot project we didn’t know how many ‘customers’ to expect through the doors of Pizza Express who hosted the event. We felt 35 was a good number but were amazed at how many were referred onto their GP.”

**********************************************************************************
Dear Geoff.

It was a pleasure to see you at the St Patrick’s Day Parade. I was so pleased to hear of the new Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club.

The emphasis is obviously on equality of membership and I congratulate you for this bold move.

The event on the 26th of April looks great. I wondered if you have contacted the Primary Care Trust for support. It may be worth writing to John Wilderspin the Chief Executive of the Trust for help.

Do let me know how you get on.

Please let me know if I can help with recruitment to the club by arranging a visit to the House of Commons. I should be delighted to help if I can.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Moffatt
Member of Parliament for Crawley

**********************************************************************************

The Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club and The Stroke Association are working in partnership for the first time to help combat high blood pressure, the single biggest risk factor for stroke.

One day of free blood pressure measuring will be held on Saturday 26th April 2008 for Crawley residents and workers at Pizza Express Restaurant on The Boulevard, Crawley from 10.00 a.m. – 12.00 p.m.

The campaign has proven to be extremely successful over the past five years for UK Rotary Clubs with record numbers of people getting their blood pressure measured. This year we hope to encourage more than 30,000 people throughout the UK to take advantage of this free health check.

Madeleine Mills of the Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club says: “We hope local residents will stop by Pizza Express and have their blood pressure measured. It will only take a few minutes but it could help save their lives. The checks will be conducted by medical professionals who have volunteered to take part. All our Club members will be queuing up to get their blood pressure measured too!”

Each year an estimated 150,000 people across the UK will have a stroke. It is one of the top three causes of death and a leading cause of severe adult disability in the UK. High blood pressure is the most important causal risk factor for stroke causing about 50 per cent of ischaemic strokes. There are often no symptoms of high blood pressure so these measurements are vitally important.

Contact Details

For more information on the Blood Pressure Measuring Days please contact Geoff williamson, Gatwick Diamond Rotary Club, on 07957-8752191 or by e-mail at geoffwilliamson@gatwickdiamondrotary.org

For further information about stroke and The Stroke Association

PLEASE CLICK ON PICTURE BELOW