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Jill Richardson - 252 - £100 & Steve Dennington - 181 - £48.50
To join the 100 Club is a very good way of supporting the group, another successful year with an estimated £1,970 being raised for Upbeat funds and £2040 given in prize money.
Please remember that the `100' Club is open to members of Upbeat and also their family and friends — please encourage non-members to support our lottery.
Upbeat Heart Support celebrating 30 years since its inception. It was formed in July 1995 as a self-help support group and set up by ex-cardiac patients to provide exercise, social and health activities for those who have suffered heart attacks or other heart problems.
Its aim was to encourage and support patients and importantly, their carers to get back to leading as normal life as possible, encouraging a healthy life style and through mutual support provide our members with the confidence to enjoy an active and rewarding life style.
The original members created the group as a Registered Charity and British Heart Foundation provided £100 to set up the group in 1995. A constitution was drawn up and still exists today We began at Bury Leisure centre and after several moves over the years we now operate from The New Bury Community Centre in Bury St. Edmunds on a Monday and Wednesday morning and from the Long Melford Old School Community Centre on a Tuesday morning. We still offer the same degree of care and attention with a nurse and qualified instructor in place at every session.
Upbeat is affiliated to the British Heart Foundation Network– and is recognised by hospitals, GPs and health organisations throughout the area.
To keep Upbeat going requires finance and many varied and innovative fund raising activities from Strawberry Teas to Quiz Nights to Race Nights and so much more. The main source of funding has been via donations, sponsorship events such as the Three Peak Challenge, Sky Diving, Marathons, Abseiling, Wing Walking etc. plus the occasional grant.
Our thanks must go to all those who have served on the Executive Committee and the Social Committees over the years and indeed to all those who have helped and continue to help to make this wonderful organisation survive and prosper.
The group has won two prestigious awards. In May 2017 The High Sheriff Of Suffolk, Geoffrey Probert presented Upbeat Officers with the High Sheriff’s Certificate Of Recognition Award and in 2018 we even surpassed that with The Queens Award For Voluntary Service and officers were invited to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth ll in attendance. We have had over 2200 members since we started and the current membership stands at over 560. Something must be right.
The recent AGM coincided with the retirement of the present Chairperson, Sylvia Baker who had held the post for eleven years during a very difficult time for the group, i.e. Covid etc. She has been a brilliant chairman and will be missed by the membership. David Axton, who has been closely involved with the group for many years through editing our Upbeat Magazine is taking over the role.
A party was held after the AGM where all members were invited to come and celebrate our 30 years and to present the outgoing chairman with a parting gift.
The awareness day held at the Arts Centre at St. Peter’s Church in Sudbury was organised by Hardwicke House Group Practice and is an opportunity once a year for local groups to get together and show what help is available for local people. There were varied participants this year, local surgeries, mental health awareness groups, dogs for the deaf, U3A, defibrillator training and many others. Upbeat was there to showcase what we offer in the way of rehabilitation classes at Long Melford and also the social aspect of the group.
There was a steady stream of visitors and the local choir attended to entertain us during the morning, which certainly brought in an audience from the market stalls. I hope we got our message across and it was lovely to catch up with some older members we had not seen for a while. Thanks to Hilary Neeves and Bill Kettyle for manning our stall and spreading the message.
You can view our Spring 2025 magazine by clicking the link below.
A kind and generous donation has been made by the ‘Order of Buffaloes’ at Bury St Edmunds for £500 to Upbeat Heart Support Group.
David James presented a cheque to our Chairperson, Sylvia Baker and our Treasurer, Valerie Axton.
We are extremely grateful for this kind and very useful donation.
Thank you to everyone for raising donations for Upbeat Heart Support Group with #easyfundraising! If you haven't signed up yet, it's easy and completely FREE. 8,100 brands will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to do your everyday online shopping - at no extra cost to you! Every donation you raise makes a difference to us so please sign up & share today.
As from 1st September 2024 the price of the Upbeat Medicard increases to £5 due unfortunately to rising costs
Details of the Medicard may be found by clicking the button below.