Health

A blood donation session will be held at Feltham assembly hall on Monday September 7.

Anyone can give blood at the Hounslow Road hall between 10am-12.30pm and 2pm-4pm.

Feltham churches have stopped serving communion wine in an effort to halt the spread of swine flu.

Christ Church, Southville Methodist Church and St Dunstan's Church announced in a newsletter last week that they would be following advice from church leaders not to pass around the wine chalice.

The letter said: "At Holy Communion we will be following the advice to the whole Church of England not to share the chalice at present because of concern about spreading the swine flu virus."

Forty-one percent of 11-year-olds in Feltham and Bedfont are overweight and in some schools more than a quarter of children are clinically obese, a study has revealed.

The figures presented to Hounslow councillors last week were described by one
expert as 'frightening'. He warned childhood obesity in the borough was a 'time bomb waiting to explode'.

A measurement programme of Year 6 pupils found that 41% of Feltham and Bedfont schoolchildren are overweight or obese - compared with 33% nationally - while 30% of local Reception age pupils were overweight - against the 23% national average.

Scientists are looking for Hounslow pensioners to take part in a study of the exercise in the over-65s.

Research staff at University College London are appealing for volunteers to take part in a six month programme of exercise in a bid to promote activity in older people.

A devoted Bedfont aunt determined to help save her nephew's fiancée from cancer has inspired her colleagues at Hounslow Council to organise a five-mile fundraising walk.

Friends and relatives of Staines primary school teacher Melissa Huggins have fought desperately to help her raise the £200,000 she needs to battle a rare, life-threatening brain tumour.

The mother of a tragic Bedfont girl who was poisoned by carbon monoxide in her new-build flat said she takes comfort from knowing thousands more lives may have been saved thanks to investigations prompted by her daughter's death.

Keen dancer Elouise Littlewood died on February 27, two months after moving into a shared-ownership flat in the Bedfont Lakes development.

It is officially party time over at Sandbanks this week as staff and residents at the Bedfont care home celebrate a glowing Government report.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), awarded the home its top rating of three stars along with a positive report.

The new chairman preparing to take the helm at Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals next month has promised to improve patients satisfaction levels at the two hospitals.

Aileen McLeish, who has a Mechanical Sciences degree from Cambridge and has worked for Unilever and WWF UK, will hold the post for four years once she takes the reigns next month.

The mother-of-two, from Hampton, described her appointment as "a tremendous privilege" and promised to improve the way patients feel about the compassion and care they receive.

Health chiefs have urged residents to have their say on how medical services across the borough are run by joining a new watchdog.

Hounslow's Local Involvement Network, LINk, met for the first time last month, but it's not too late to get involved.

Health chiefs are urging people to join up to a new local watchdog - but some experts remain unconvinced about the new system.

Hounslow's Local Involvement Network (LINk) will allow anyone to shape the way health and social services are run across the borough, having replaced a number of old forums covering West Middlesex Hospital and Hounslow Primary Care Trust.