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South 16 Woodham Focus South Woodham Focus & & & I read a story about someone getting stuck on a ledge of a cliff. Hundreds of feet below them were jagged rocks with the sea crashing all around them. Above them, and a similar distance there was a shear unclimbable rock wall up to the top. What should they do? Remembering something that they had heard on several occasions at school, they decided to pray for help. Suddenly a huge eagle appeared, hovered very close, and said “get onto my back, I’ll carry you to the top”. They refused. Then an air/sea rescue helicopter flew in and over the loudspeaker said “We’re dropping a rope with a rescuer attached, when he gets close enough, put on the harness he is carrying and let us pull you safely into the chopper” But the stranded climber refused to let go of his precarious hold on the ledge. By this time a crowd was gathering on the cliff top and they were praying that the climber & might be rescued. The crew of a light aircraft who were watching all this happening flew close in and dropped a rope ladder long enough to be secured at the top and to reach the ledge. The climber would not climb it. Instead they decided to pray again for God to rescue them. He replied “I sent you an eagle, I sent you a helicopter, I sent you a rope ladder and you refused them all, why didn’t you make use of one of them? - And the climber woke up in bed feeling both sweaty and confused. That’s the thing about prayer, it has to be accompanied by trust, not only that God hears the prayer but that His answer is the way forward. Often the answer He gives sends provides more than one solution, more than one way forward. But he doesn’t send the answer which we have decided we want to hear. In other words we don’t trust his answers. Quite often He answers through what seems like a ‘natural’ event – and why shouldn’t He as He created everything and knows about everything that is going on. Sometimes His answer is a random, unexpected or inexplicable event. This is the point when we need to stop and think about prayer. It’s got two sides. The prayers we ask - the little things and the immense even life changing things. But there is the times when each of us can be the answer to prayer by allowing ourselves to be led by God to help by responding to a need;, to do, by using our energy or skills for someone elses benefit;, or to give our time or our money to help someone. SWF Christian Council FROM SPRING TO SUMMER Photographs sent in by Dan Carlin of wildlife in his garden. 6 66 66 66 6 Blue Tit fledglings the first hint of summer Getting bigger and soon to fly the nest ;;0= &3-=)'07=;7%3(-7; +87Q6;;Q 8"7Q-8/EQ/6$B2EB6BNMOPJ4LINJKPO <
South Woodham Focus FOCUS FOCUS ON ON HEALTH HEALTH LEADERS IN EUROPE. We may not have the team that won the Champions League but we are way ahead of our fellow Western Europeans in one important respect. We are top of the ‘Obesity League’ … indisputable champions! Whilst others may shy away from the risk to life and limb that this entails, we Brits fearlessly step up to the plate. 17 Professional football games a reflect the wider problem – whilst there are a few fine specimens of humanity on the pitch, in the stands there are supporters of all shapes and sizes. The outsize fans seem to gather as close to the TV cameras as they can wearing their shiny, clingy team shirts or, as the excitement mounts, not wearing their shiny, clingy team shirts (neither being ‘a good look’ for those who can stand to lose a pound or two.) Perhaps their propensity for self-publicity skews one’s view of the ratio between the slim and fit and the overweight – but all too often the young Adonises appear heavily outnumbered by those with a propensity for pies and pints. So where is this leading? In case you missed it, here is this week’s story. The number of 10 and 11-year-old children classed as severely obese (the ‘most overweight’ scale) in the final year of primary school is nearly double that of those in’ reception’, new analysis by the Local Government Association revealed this week. For children to be classified in this way they have to have a BMI (age adjusted) at or above the 99th centile. The LGA, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, is warning that severe child obesity rates, which have been published for the first time, are contributing to a multi-billion pound ill-health time bomb. It analysed Public Health England figures … and the figures show that more than 22,000 children aged 10 and 11 in Year 6 are classed as severely obese. For most adults, a BMI of 40 or above means a person is severely obese – at least 60 per cent higher than the upper healthy weight BMI limit of 24.9. As I’ve mentioned before here, severe obesity puts people at serious health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer - obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer. Severe obesity can shorten a person’s life by 10 years – an equivalent loss to the effects of lifelong smoking. The worry is that children are gaining weight at a drastic rate as they go through schools. Severe obesity rates vary significantly by area and are highest in children living in the most-deprived towns and cities, and those from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups. The LGA saays that the figures should serve as a “wake-up call” for concerted action to tackle the obesity crisis which is costing the NHS more than £5 billion a year. Despite budget reductions, councils are spending more on running effective prevention schemes to help children stay healthy, which is key to tackling the child obesity crisis and reducing future costs to hospital, health and social care services. Alongside the health warning, the LGA have a political message. It says this preventative work, including the ability of councils to provide weight management services for children and adults, is being hampered by a £600 million reduction in councils’ public health budgets by central government between 2015/16 and 2019/20. The LGA is, therefore, calling for reductions in public health grants to be reversed by the Government and for further reforms to tackle childhood obesity. This includes councils having a say in how and where the soft drinks levy is spent, better labelling on food and drink products, and for councils to be given powers to ban junk food advertising near schools. Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Unless we tackle this obesity crisis, today’s obese children will become tomorrow’s obese adults whose years of healthy life will be shortened by a whole host of health problems including diabetes, cancer and heart disease.” Laura (aka Dr Cormack jnr) with Tom (born 27th May) WANTON WASTE. As the Prime Minister is gearing up to announce more funding for the health service as its 70th anniversary approaches, Prof Keith Willett, medical director for acute care, has been sounding off in The Telegraph. Laura Donnelly’s piece says he has accused the NHS of being guilty of a “ridiculous waste of resources” - and that he claims we could improve care without spending a penny more. His bugbear is bed-blocking - and he says that too many surgeons were left unable to operate - sometimes on a daily basis - because of a failure to tackle bed-blocking, with beds filled by those unable to discharged for want of help at home. Guy Birchal, writing in The Sun, quotes him as saying: “The best problem solving happens when senior clinicians and managers come together because we start to understand the reasons for blockages and where they could, with some leadership, common sense thinking and a rearrangement of resources, be solved.” Whilst most of us think the NHS desperately needs a HUGE injection of cash if it is to continue trying to claim that it can be all things to every man, women and child ‘from cradle to grave’ whilst continuing as a ‘free at the point of use’ service funded by the taxpayer, the Prof does have a point. There is eye watering waste in NHS – and nobody ever seems to get the blame. Look at what’s happened here in SWF. The Practice, hitherto known as the New Surgery’ was a £multi-million folly. In the PCT era, those making decisions thought it would be a jolly good idea to open a 4th surgery in the town centre (the 4th having been put there on the basis of a ‘business plan’ supported by 53 people in a town with a population of some 18,500!) The premises alone were an example of profligacy on a grand scale … fully equipped portakabins were erected for no good reason, their power supplied by a generator which ran day and night - and GPs were flown into the country and put up in hotels in order to help keep it ticking over. Then the portakabins were made redundant and everyone was moved to the McCarthy and Stone building where we were told the total outgoings were (and are) £105,000 per annum. This, incidentally, is MUCH more that the cost of the remaining premises in the town centre which cater for three times as many patients. In order to pay for this foolhardiness the primary care allocation for thousands of patients was cut to the bone and beyond. What is more, at about the time all this took place, South Woodham’s £21,000 development grant was taken away – and we were expected to avoid making the connection. Now of course, that practice has been laid to rest in the graveyard reserved for white elephants … and yet nobody was openly disciplined and nobody, as far as we know, was fired as a result. Whilst these people continue to get away with it, the NHS will go on wasting taxpayers’ money (which, lest we forget, is also patients’ money as it is supposedly earmarked for their care.) Hopefully, therefore, Prof Keith will continue his war on waste (but that doesn’t mean we don’t also need a lot more cash.) Dr John HOME ALONE . Sue and I were surprised to hear of the birth of our grandson,Tom, on Saturday. The labour lasted about 90 minutes from beginning to end and, Gary having taken the boys out in order to let her have some P&Q, Laura was left to get on with it. The midwife arrived at the house with just a minute to spare and managed to talk her through it without hesitation, deviation or repetition. We were as much taken by surprise as everyone else involved - but delighted to have such a welcome addition to our extended family! SOUTH WOODHAM FOCUS www.facebook.com/swfocus
Page 1 and 2: SOUTH WOODHAM FOCUS! Serving the Co
Page 3 and 4: South Woodham Focus Anti-Traffickin
Page 5 and 6: South Woodham Focus 5 JILL JACKSON
Page 7 and 8: South Woodham Focus 7 South Woodham
Page 9 and 10: South Woodham Focus 9 ?SLPROQYJXSXY
Page 11 and 12: South Woodham Focus SOUTH WOODHAM F
Page 13 and 14: Independent Car Dealer Of The Year
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Page 19 and 20: South Woodham Focus 19 Job Opportun
Page 21 and 22: South Woodham Focus 21 On Saturday
Page 23 and 24: South Woodham Focus 23 BILLBOARD HO
Page 25 and 26: South Woodham Focus 25 BUILDING & L
Page 27 and 28: South Woodham Focus PAINTERS & DECO

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