Queen Elizabeth Foundation Bikeathon

Queen Elizabeth Foundation Bikeathon – Sunday 26th September 2010

Well last Sunday saw the team at Fine Fettle once again at a charity event. This time it was our great pleasure to support the QEF for disabled people. Their annual Bikeathon charity ride.

QEF works with people living with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries to gain new skills and increase independence. Whether it’s learning everyday life skills, rebuilding a life affected by brain injury, acquiring the skills to drive a specially adapted car or training for future employment QEF supports disabled people to achieve goals for life. http://www.qef.org.uk/

The day started early with a warm-up for the cyclists performed by Mel Healy (Fine Fettles own Sports Therapist, Rehabilitation and Trainer) at the QEF head quarters. As the head trainer for the GB American Football squad we had to tame her enthusiasm slightly for us lesser mortals!!

The warm up went well with the majority of the cyclists joining in before their charity ride and even a few Fine Fettle therapists were seen jumping about…we were not sure if they were following Mel’s warm up or if they were just a bit cold. You can see Debra (Team Fine Fettle) wandering off to the left of the picture below - where was she going?!!! Anyway fun was had by all …..

The Cyclists then set off in staggered start for bike rides of 13, 26 or 45 miles. The finish was to be at the Old Plough Pub in Stoke d’Abernon so Team Fine Fettle had to move fast to set up again at the finish line.

Two gazebos up and six couches later Team Fine Fettle were at the finish venue awaiting the first weary cyclists. Around midday the first finishers started to come in to be welcomed by Team Fine Fettle, QEF staff and a fabulous outdoor BBQ that has us all craving burger and chips!!

Thanks goes to Mel, Caroline, Debra, Chris, Rachel, Aileen and Helen for providing such great after event massage, injury advice and general support. Fantastic team of practitioners at Fine Fettle and we raised £70 for QEF in the process. That is a total of over £200 raised for charity in September. It was the first event that we had all 6 couches full most of the time.

This Sunday Team Fine Fettle can be found at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Cranleigh (famous for being the track for Top Gear) for the Events to Live 20 mile run. It is an early start so once again Team Fine Fettle miss a lie in but we love it really!!! Do come and visit us and support the runners if you are in the area. The start is at 9am.

Go to our website at www.finefettle.org for detailed information about services provided.

Weightless?


No but I am less weight I have lost 6lb. Not losing as fast as I would like but before anyone else says it ...... I know it is better to lose slowly and steadily, it’s just that although my body might be slow with the additional weight my mind is actually very fit and athletic and is impatient to get things moving so that I can achieve the goal I have set myself.

Have had a couple of occasions where I thought I had more pressing things to think about than losing weight but realised that perhaps this was a path I had travelled down before that leads to a dead end where I give up! So after I had spoken to myself quite sternly (at my age it is quite alright to talk to yourself) I feel I am back on track. However I have realised that self motivation is not my strong point. I enjoy motivating others but with myself I have realised I need help. Thus I am going to add yet another tool to my weight loss toolbox. There is now a personal trainer working out of Finefettle. Kim Raine is setting up a small group for people who want to start exercising but maybe don’t feel quite ready to exercise alongside all those fit regular gym goers. The training will take place out in the fresh air and each person will train to their own ability (although I don’t think you will be allowed to slack off just because you don’t think you can do something if Kim thinks you can!) I think details will be advertised soon.

Thank you for reading my blog, writing things down is quite cathartic in itself. Hopefully there will be less of me writing my next one.

Team Fine Fettle

Since my last blog, Team Fine Fettle have been working hard at local events.

Early on Sunday 5th September, the “Team” set off to set up for the Badger Half Marathon which started in Leatherhead and then over the beautiful countryside of Norbury Park and back to the start. An early start to set up the couches, and then a wait for the first runners to come in. The first runner Tim Elsey came home first in a new course record of 1.15.17. In the ladies race Rose Nicholson from Woking AC stormed to victory in an excellent 1.25.28.

Mel Healy, Joss Hudspith, Caroline Adderly and Helen Bullen where the therapists on the day and had their work cut out with almost two hours of solid post-event massage and injury support, once the main body of runners came across the finishing line. A hard morning with many tired runners as the course was a hilly one. We raised over £80 for the Rainbow Trust Charity.

 
Last Sunday saw the Fine Fettle Team out again at the Bacchus Half and Full Marathon event. This was the first time it had been run and the emphasis was on fun, as runners were encouraged to don fancy dress and sample wine en route.

Team Fine Fettle were once again manning the massage and injury support area and, much to my better judgement, I was actually doing the half marathon. Not only did I agree to run it, but somewhere along the line I decided with some friends it would be good fun to dress up and all run it together. This meant 9 cave girls on the run!!!

 

Us at the start

  

Supporting Chase charity

 

As I have a group of friends who are keen runners there were only two cave girls who had never run beyond 10 miles before with many of us marathon finishers at some point in our running careers. We all decided to run together and rebanded at every drinks stop for Jelly Babies and a snifter of wine!!! We then all ran on together... With the stops, singing and mucking about, we finally came home in just under 2hrs 30. A nice time to take time to enjoy the race and the surroundings. I do think we did surprise a few runners as being the largest group in fancy dress initially runners wanted to get in front of us… We are not a bad group of runners so it was fun to catch a few unawares and get back in front on the big hills!!!

Us at the finish!

Our finish was somewhat noisy and we think may have been heard in Dorking….lots of singing and whooping – we seem to have made many websites and papers since!!!

 
 Mel Healy, Jan Coheeney, Caroline Adderley and Debra all worked really hard nursing sore legs and helping reduce the symptoms of such a long and hilly course. Jan ended up blue after massaging an Avatar character (we thought he was a Smurf at first) who did the full marathon. He is running 6 marathons in 7 weeks and we gave him an honorary cave man outfit to wear on one of this forthcoming  marathons… Look out for him!  He promised to email us a picture so will blog it if we get it through!

Jan working out how not to get too “blue” on the day!!



Had Jan now become an Avatar too??

Team Fine Fettle once again was a roaring success and with the expertise of both Osteopathy and Sports Therapy, and provided a full-on service for all the post-event runners. Once again, they raised money for the race charity – Chase and raised over £160 on the day.  Next event for Team Fine Fettle is the Queen Elizabeth Foundation Bikeathon on Sunday 26th September. We're looking forward to it as Mel Healy is taking the warm-up and seems to think we will all be doing it with her????!!!
Now back to my week off… First one since opening and I have to say I am finding it hard to keep away from the clinic…I did pop in today but was soon sent away until Monday…
Thanks for following us and catch up again soon

Helen Bullen

Owner/Director of Fine Fettle and Osteopath

World Reflexology Week

I thought I'd let you know that next week is World Reflexology Week (19th-25th September)

This is an opportunity to raise more awareness of this calming, relaxing therapy and its many benefits.

To coincide with this, we have a special promotional offer:
If you book during World Reflexology Week for any further date, you will receive 10% discount off your first appointment.

So, if you're stressed, tired, anxious, or have any other specific conditions, see if Reflexology could help you, and treat yourself to some well-deserved 'me' time.

Thank you and hope to see you soon.

Brett Harris C.Hyp, D.Hyp, M.A.R, CNLP Prac.
Reflexologist and Clinical Hypnotherapist

www.aor.org.uk

For years, I have wanted to lose weight and get fitter (I know there will be those of you who say ‘it’s easy - you just eat less and exercise more’). But I can assure you it might look that easy on paper, but you have missed out one important differential – we are human beings and therefore not one of us are the same. We all carry our own personal baggage and have our own beliefs and values and mine do not seem to fit with being slim and healthy no matter what I try.

This time however is different – I am throwing everything at it and some of the therapists at Fine Fettle are helping me. I am receiving osteopathy from Helen Bullen and I have spoken to Helen Williams, our nutritionist. I am receiving acupuncture from Gordana Petrovic and Pilates 1-1 from Lizzie Richardson, and lastly, but certainly not least, hypnotherapy from Brett Harris. So this time it has to work – but just in case I am tempted to give up I am posting this on the blog and will update those of you that are interested regularly. Be warned, I have a lot to lose so this could be a serial blog!

Oh, I forgot to say Helen B and Brett are taking it in turns to ensure I walk every lunchtime I am here. We usually walk between 1pm and 1.45pm so if anyone fancies a walk (gentle for some but exhausting for people like me) why not give us a ring and join us! It could be a one-off or more regular; whatever suits you. We would just ask that you check with your GP that you are ok for walking first.

For those of you that are interested I will blog again soon.

Know Your Numbers! Week

During Know You Numbers! Week (13th-19th September) we will be asking locals: 'are you gambling with your health?' as it was revealed by the Blood Pressure Association that 75% of us do not know our blood pressure numbers. As many are taking such a gamble with their health, Fine Fettle are urging everyone to get their free blood pressure check during the week.

There are around 1,400 official "Pressure Stations" from around the country, who are all taking part in the biggest blood pressure event in the UK, lead by UK charity the Blood Pressure Association.

One third of adults have high blood pressure; it's a symptonless condition, meaning the only way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to get tested. Without the test, many are ignorantly gambling their health, as high blood pressure can cause heart attacks and strokes. Once high blood pressure is detected, it can be managed successfully.

We are very keen to support such a worthwhile campaign. Monitoring blood pressure is very simple and when done can help to keep a person healthy, and avoid heart disease. We urge all local residents to come in on Monday 13th September, between 9.30am and 1pm, to take advantage of our free testing.

To find out more about the campaign, visit the Know Your Numbers! Week website at www.bpassoc.org.uk/kyn or call 020 8772 4994

If you have a question about high blood pressure and would like to speak to someone over the phone, call the Blood Pressure Association's information line on 0845 241 0989

GB Lions

Mel is back from 2 weeks in Frankfurt Germany, looking after the GB Lions as they made their bid to become European Champions. It was a gruelling two weeks, full of emotional and physical ups and downs. Although the team did not do as well as hoped, there were a lot of lessons learnt and plans are already being made to improve their overall performance. Look out for more GB Lions news as we prepare to play Ireland in October.

Melina Healy
Clinical Sports Therapist
BSc Hons, MSST