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Recent Events

Christmas Dinner 2010

The second Christmas function of the Mayo support group took place on the 17th December 2010 despite the snow and very cold conditions over this weekend.
17 of the original 33 booked managed to make it and as several stayed over night in the Hotel everyone arrived back home safely.
This function included a five course meal and a show following which was the Mike Denver Christmas Show and all those who attended said it was a great night and worth the effort to get there.
During the meal we held a free raffle for two show tickets and these were won by Jimmy Jordan, following this the chairman Colin Tubbs came in with a sack full of presents and it was a lucky dip with a present for everyone.
Again this was a very successful event for the Mayo Group and Colin said it was worth all the effort to see everyone smiling and mixing in together which is in my opinion what has made our support group work so well as all are making an effort to socialise once again proving you can manage and live with COPD, well done to all for making this a great night.
Below are a few photographs of the night and the chap on stage in the white suite is Mike Denver and believe it or not the one with the Christmas sack is actually Santa Claus!!!
Happy New Year to all our members, their families, and to the medical staff who help us and  all those out there that support us so well during the year.
Thank you and God Bless
Colin Tubbs
Chairman
Mayo COPD Support Group

World COPD Day

WORLD COPD AWARENESS DAY: This event took place on the 17th November 2010 all over the World and Mayo was no exception as our main stand was set up in the Mayo General Hospital with the nursing staff giving spirometry testing to possible sufferers and giving advice on the use of nebulisers and inhalers, they also carried out carbon monoxide tests and spoke on smoking cessation. The stand for the medical staff can be seen on the right in the photographs below.
The Mayo COPD Support set up a stand alongside the nursing staff stand and it was manned by some of our members we welcomed many people to speak with us on the day on the benefits of joining a support group such as the Mayo one as it is an ideal way of meeting people with the same problems to live with and it also gets sufferers out of their set environment and keeps them socialising which is known to be a very important step in learning how to live with this disease.

This day was also our 2nd Gold Ribbon Pin Day in which we sold these awareness ribbons, we now also have developed a ball point pen with the name and contact details on it again to create awareness, these were sold on the day and proofed to be very popular.
We had stands set up in 8 locations around Mayo all of which were selling pins and pens but also handing our information leaflets and were willing to talk on COPD.
Thanks to all those who assisted us on the day and to the general public who were so generous in donating to our cause we raised a very valuable sum which will be used as always to ensure our group keeps going forward for its members and to increase the services it can offer to sufferers and their families.

In the attached photos you will see the nursing staff along with some of those being tested, in other photos are our chairman Colin Tubbs along with our vice Treasurer Maureen and vice Secretary Lyn. A Cllr from Castlebar also attended who is Ger Deere and he is also the Mayo of Castlebar, other visitors included representatives from major drug companies and the main consultant for respiratory diseases at the hospital Dr Rooney who was delighted at the outcome of this event.

Our Chairman Colin thanked the media for their coverage, the local radio stations for their interviews, the stores for us of their premises in various towns, to all the volunteers and helpers who made this day the success it was, last but not least he gives a Big thank you to all those who so kindly gave to our group as without their support we would find it more difficult to grow.
To summarise on the day: It was considered by all to be a great success as with every event we have behind us means that we are for ever increasing the awareness to COPD and our support group in Mayo which has now become one of the leading lights in Ireland on how support groups can be of a great benefit to sufferers and their families alike.

COPD Pin Badge Day

The Mayo COPD Support Group held its first Pin badge day on the 12th August 2010 and although organising this type of event took a great deal of work and effort especially for the first time, it was considered by all those involved to be a great success. Not only did it raise a good sum in funding for the group but it created a great deal of awareness to COPD and the work of the support group and what it can do for sufferers and their families.
This event also marked the first year of the Mayo support group since it was founded in August 2009 and as you can tell from this web site the group has come a long way in just 12 months with many events already under its belt and several more in the process of being arranged. A great deal of its success has to be to do with the fact that one of our main aims is to get members involved and to attend the outings, meetings and other events which in turn get them out and about and mixing with other people with the similar problems caused by having COPD. The chairman Colin Tubbs said recently that “it is seeing sufferers and their families alike enjoying themselves and smiling that makes running this support group all worthwhile” and even on our 1st Pin Badge Day and although there was a serious side to the day, every body seemed to enjoy it, both the collectors and the public who took time to chat with us about COPD.
Colin also mentions that he and the group are most grateful to the public in the way they gave so generously on the day to help our cause and how rewarding it was to see people wearing the Gold Ribbon Pin and it is a great sign of how people really do care. The photos below show just one of our collection points on the 12th and we hope you agree it did look well and our thanks go to the various super markets and other venues who allowed us to use their premises for this collection and awareness day, we only set up in a few towns around Mayo but hopefully next year we can increase this to cover many more towns and bring the function of the Mayo COPD Support Group to the attention of many more people. Again we have to say a BIG THANK YOU to all those members and helpers who took part on the day to make it a success and also to all those which gave so willingly and are wearing our COPD Gold Awareness Ribbon, With a little bit of help and all things going well we will be holding our 2nd Pin Day on the 17th November 2010 which is also to mark World COPD Awareness Day.

 

Returning to the Past with a Traditional evening full of Criac

On Saturday the 24th July 2010 the Mayo COPD Support Group held a Traditional Irish Night in Maire Lukes Bar Tourmakeady and as the large crowd of around 200 including several members of the Mayo COPD Support Group and they will confirm it was a great success and created an atmosphere from the past as best it could with the most obvious difference being the number of people who not only came to support this Mayo based support group but ended up being treated to an evening of Traditional Music, Dance and song, you could say a step back into the passed. When the Chairman of the group Colin Tubbs first suggested the idea of holding such an event several suggested he should get a well known name to head the evening as this would attract the people to come, initially he said I did try but having played himself for over 4 years in the sessions at Maire Lukes he was fully aware of the amount of local talent that existed with this area so with the help of local musician Clare Sanders from the Music Shop in Cloonee it was decided to put together an evening made up of all local talent. The evening was not set out to be a fund raiser but more to give an evening out for members of the group their families and carers along with being totally open to All who wish to come and enjoy the night and support this worthwhile cause and they did come, and in fact through the raffle and just a couple of donation buckets a sum of €470 euros was raised, not only was it a grand night of entertainment but it created a great deal of awareness to COPD. As the photographs show there was a total mix of ages involved and this was particularly noticed by all there, but this was no accident as it has been Colin’s aim over the years and along with others such as Thomas O’Mhaille, Tom Gibbons and Clare Sanders to encourage youngsters to join in with our sessions which are held every other weekend and over the course of time they have grown in confidence so they can now become an important part of an evening like this, not only can the more experienced players pass on their knowledge but it is a sure fired way of ensuring that traditional music, dance and song continues into the future and in a friendly way between the young and let say not so young. The entertainment included the original Tourmakeady Cois Locha Band which was so named 3 years ago and in those days consisted of Thomas O’Mhaille, Tom Gibbons, Fiona Casey and Colin Tubbs and accompanied by others at the sessions, and it has grown from there, also on the evening the young players from The Tourmakeady College Band joined with us along with Marcus and Patrick both very good Accordion players this finally resulted in 15 players giving a wide range of musical treats. Not only this but we had several wonderful singers who sang both in Irish and English and of course no Irish evening would be complete without the dancing and this was provided in the form of Sean’Nos With performances by Niamh Duffy, Lisa Gibbons and Sarah Philbin, The musicians provided a great deal of dance music to accompany set dancers from Belcarra, Castlebar and Westport who came not only to support us but to enjoy the evening and how they did at the same time as entertaining both visitors and local alike to the skills of this age old traditional type of dancing, the evening included much music also for the less energetic dancers such as waltzes to give something for every one. Colin Tubbs gave an address during the evening to thank all those who supplied the wonderful raffle prizes and to thank all who had helped to make this a really great evening not least of all to Barbara and Frank of Maire Lukes for providing the venue and finger food and for Clare Sanders for her undying support and musical talent and of course to his wife Lyn for putting up and supporting him during making the arrangements for this event. Not to forget a thank you to all the Musicians, Singers and Dancers for their effort and time to put together what we feel was a truly unique event, on behalf of all the members of the Mayo COPD Support Group he say’s a heart felt thank you and hopefully one day again in the future we will hold another similar night, although this one was the first. As said earlier this event was also to create awareness to COPD and just to explain it is short for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and it covers Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis and in some cases Asthma these affect the lungs and severally restrict breathing it is caused by smoking and dusty working environments, in some case it is hereditary, unfortunately there is no cure but it can be managed with the correct medicines and education given through rehab classes which are arranged by the hospitals such as Mayo General Hospital and their respiratory department, like all major illnesses the sooner it is detected the better so if you feel you may have the symptoms of COPD then we recommend you first visit your General Practitioner who can then make the necessary referrals. And where does the Support Group come in, well it follows on from the hospital rehab programme in most cases however even if you have not been diagnosed with the disease you can still contact us, we work very closely with the hospital staff in arranging meetings and creating awareness. Our main role is to give support to sufferers, their families and carers to assist in learning to cope with living with COPD, by arranging meetings and social events such as the one above to give members days and evenings out to create an environment of interest which in turn builds hope and a feel good factor for sufferers for the future. As A sufferer myself I know exactly how difficult life can be some times with this illness but it is in my opinion far better to get the support and friendship of others with a similar problem than to just sit in doors worrying, so why not join us, you can contact Colin and the Mayo Support group on 0860277020 or visit our web site on www.copdsupportmayo.ie which has all the contact details. Alternatively our next bio-monthly meeting is on the 26th August 2010 at The T.F.Royal Hotel in Castlebar Co Mayo stating at 3pm you would be most welcome to come and see for yourself and have a cup of tea or coffee with us, there is no charge or membership fees so why not try it.

West of Ireland Women's Mini Marathon 2010

Many of our members participated in this years West of Ireland Women's Mini Marathon raising thousand of Euros to help our organisation. The event was held on the 2nd May 2010 through the streets of Castlebar in the West of Ireland. The sunshine was also out to join us for the day and stayed with us for the duration.
The mini marathon is organised by the Western People and the Mayo Sports Partnership, this year saw more than 3,000 ladies participate in the 10 km journey taking them out of the centre of Castlebar through to Turlough Village and back again to the Mall in Castlebar.

Our very own Chairman (yes a man!) took part in the Womens mini marathon helping to raise valuable funds for the Mayo COPD Support Group. As this was a "Women's" marathon Colin Tubbs (Chairman of the Mayo COPD Support Group) was dressed in a female nurses uniform, blonde wig and plenty of make-up. Also joining Colin on his journey around the marathon was Ursula Clarke (Respiratory Nurse) and several other family members including Colin's daughter Marie who flew over to Ireland from the UK to take part in the marathon, her husband Peter who travelled with her as well had the envious task of pushing Colin around the track in his wheel chair. Joining them all on the circuit was Colins wife Lyn who also completed the 10 kilometer circuit. Also running for us in this event was Emer Donoghue formerly Downes who flew over from Boston in the USA to support our group and in memory of her father Henry Downes from Castlebar who was a sufferer of COPD and a member of our group. Emer raised sponsorship both in the USA and here in Ireland and she greatly contributed to our total sum raised.

The chairman Colin Tubbs would like to thank all those who ran, walked and where pushed around in this event also to all those who raised funds for us and to those who sponsored our cause, not only was it a fun day but it created awareness to COPD and raised very valuable funds to help our support group go forward see you all at what should become an annual event.

For the Mini Marathon the COPD Support Group was kindly donated with over 40 hi-viz yellow jackets with the COPD Support Group name to help create awareness of the helpers during the day, see the pictures below of the hi-vis jackets as worn during the Mini Marathon. These jackets were supplied and printed by Target Transfers Ltd in England. Richard Tubbs, Colins son, works for Target Transfers back in England and they kindly sponsored the Hi Visibility jackets which will be used for all of our future events. The Mayo COPD Support Group are very grateful to Target Transfers Ltd for supplying and sponsoring the jackets.