Hyson Green Market place was the venue for a slightly unusual Health check on Bank Holiday Sunday, August 25th 2013. The unusual feature were the inflatable lungs taking pride of place at the front of the display area. Participants realised all those meetings had all been worth it as 75 local residents had their blood pressure, body mass index and blood sugar analysed.      

      It was in January that the Church Board at the Upper Room Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nottingham decided that they wanted to help the local community to assess their health. George Mabeza, Senior Elder of the church, suggested that we could do a health expo - and make sure that the event was well publicised, as well as organised properly.

     Several meetings saw people allocated differrent jobs, some to organise the food for the workers, others to sort out the gazebos to protect us from the sun while some gathered all of the testing gear. The desire was to design posters, create handbills and make sure that local newspapers and local radio stations so that the maximum number of people could know about the event.

     We also wanted our church members to be healthy themselves, so it was decided to get involved in some education. The training was provided as we asked our church members to read a health book over 40 days in pairs, talk about what had been learned and then put it into practice.   

     Participants found out about how much water they should be drinking, what they could eat and control their blood pressure and how much exercise they should take. The brave few decided to keep a track on their weight, blood pressure along with how much exercise they were taking. One at least found that they were not only feeling healthier but looking healthier - and they could measure their good health.

    The big day dawned. The skies were just growing light as Church Pastor, Peter Jeynes, and Church Elder, George Mabeza, headed into the centre of Nottingham for an appointment with the early morning religious programme on BBC Radio Nottingham. Sarah Julian, our host, asked us about our event giving us plenty of time to help people understand a little of what we were about. You can listen Here to a recording of the interview.
  

       The training began to pay off from the beginning of the expo as a team of helpers made sure that gazebos were erected. Not that everything went quickly, some of those structures appear to have been designed to thwart an Engineer with Einstein's brain power.

     The public arrived soon and our willing helpers directed people to our registration and then onto the next health check stations as other willing volunteers rounded up people who were interested in health checks.

     Colin, showed that not only was he looking after his health on a regular basis but was affirming that there is a real spiritual link between good health and a relationship with God.

     Other visitors demonstrated the poor health some people have to cope with simply because their bodies were letting them down. One or two others were given advice to help overcome poor and damaging health habits that were purely of their own choice

      By the time the Expo ended we had checked 75 people's health and learned that we were well and truly capable of working hand in hand with each other. People had, it appeared, had an 'Upper Room' experience.

     To see pictures from the event please click HERE