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Free health checks
Published Wednesday 15th September 10
Wellingborough Council and NHS Northamptonshire are bringing health tests and screenings to the public on Thursday 16 September in the town’s Swansgate Centre.
The aim is to help people who are unable, or in many cases unaware of the need, to visit their GPs and to catch potentially life-threatening conditions early on. According to a recent government health profile for Wellingborough, the area is worse than the national average for smoking, smoking in pregnancy and obesity and the health checks event is a step to helping prevent the conditions that are associated with these issues.
Checks available include height, weight and body mass index (BMI) checks, blood pressure, testing for diabetes and CVD (cardiovascular disease) screening. Representatives from agencies such as MEND (healthy lifestyle programme for 7-13 year olds) Aquarius (which deals with alcohol and drug abuse), Stroke association, Changing Minds (mental health), Stop Smoking services, Waendel and Redwell leisure centres will also be on hand to offer advice, and there will be an age progression camera for people to try out.
For people whose BMI exceeds 25, there will be the opportunity to attend a free 12 week healthy eating and lifestyle behaviour change programme - the 10% Challenge - at the Waendel Leisure Centre from 23 September. The programme aims to help people lose 10% of their bodyweight through healthy eating.
Wellingborough councillor Barry Graves, chairman of the healthier delivery group, explains more about the health check event: "We know that we have issues with obesity, alcohol harm and smoking in this area and we want to work with people to help them. This event is all about support, advice and motivation - we're not here to preach or force people to do things they don't want to do. Obesity has a number of problems associated with it - from high blood pressure, depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke and premature death - and sometimes people simply don't realise how small changes can make such a big difference.
"Early detection of problems is vital, not only for long-term health but also because prevention is always much more satisfactory and effective than treatment. The health checks at this event are free of charge, sensitively handled and open to anyone, whether they're concerned about a particular issue or simply curious."
The health check event will be in the Swansgate shopping centre on Thursday 16 September from 10am-3.30pm.