News from our Club

New Milton Lions Club spearheads awareness of Prostate Cancer for Men across The New Forest.

 

With more than one man every hour dying from prostate cancer and 40,000 new cases every year and no national screening available, The Lions Club of New Milton aims to facilitate a PSA blood test to as many men as possible aged 40+.  One in eight men will get Prostate Cancer in their lifetime and it is well proven that early detection and treatment may vastly increase chances of survival.

Based on the success of their 2019 Prostate Cancer Screening Day when over 300 men attended the Community Centre to be tested, which due to Covid-19 cannot be repeated at this time, The Lions Club of New Milton are working in partnership with the Graham Fulford Trust to offer men a simple finger prick test that can be done at home.

The home testing kits are sent to a home address, a blood sample is taken following the simple instructions provided, then it is returned to a specified Laboratory for processing and within a few days the results are sent to the individual, with some guidance based on a ‘traffic-light’ system. Red means high risk with advice to go and see their GP urgently, amber for medium risk with advice to have another test in a certain period and green for low risk, when no action needs to be taken in the short term.

Speaking about this campaign, Peter Bousfield, the Chair of the Welfare Committee of the Club commented, “now that the New Milton Club encompasses a much wider geographic area including Lymington, Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst, we are offering a very worthwhile opportunity for men across the New Forest to look after a particularly important aspect of their health.  We hope to continue with this programme until we are once again able to offer in-house and Covid-secure face to face testing, similar to our 2019 screening event.”

A Home Testing Kit can be obtained very quickly by visiting the newly enhanced website of The Lions Club of New Milton at www.newmiltonlions.org.uk and following the links to Prostate Screening. 

 

Multi-Agency approach feeds the Families

 

In a massive logistical exercise, The Lions Club of New Milton has coordinated the provision of over 1,000 food deliveries to needy families with children, in New Milton and the local area over the past 22 weeks.

Working in conjunction with The New Forest Basics Bank, the schools who identified the recipients and New Milton Town Council who provided the transport; every Friday an average of 45 deliveries to those who needed the assistance most during these difficult times have been made. At the height of the pandemic, some 70 odd family deliveries were being made.

At the same time, an Appeal was made to its members, to local Town Councillors and with a donation from the Lions Club of Great Britain, it has been possible to present a Cheque for £5,050 to help the Basics Bank in its on-going day-to-day operations.

At a presentation made at the Basics Bank in Lymington on Friday 11^th September, Oliver Stanley, the Chairman thanked all who had assisted in this project and especially Peter Bousfield, the Lions Club Welfare Chairman who ensured everything went as smoothly as possible. He also thanked those at the Basics Bank who had pulled out all the stops to ensure that their normal operations were maintained whilst this additional workload was handled efficiently.

Lions Club ‘Certificates of Appreciation’ were also handed to all those who had been directly involved, including Mark Jeffries, the Estates and Facilities Manager at New Milton Town Council and his team of 6 ground staff who made the deliveries.

Whilst presenting the cheque and certificates, Lions President Steve Merrifield commented “the Lions Club was so proud to have been involved in such an important project during the Covid-19 pandemic and to have been able to also make this financial contribution to the on-going work of the New Forest Basics Bank.  It is at times like these that we need groups to come together to help those less fortunate than most of us. It just shows what can be achieved if the community works together with a common goal’

The Lions Club of New Milton which has 26 members, is part of the world’s largest service organisation with more than 1.4 million members working in over 200 countries around the world. Lions President Steve Merrifield further commented “Lions Clubs try to respond to local needs as well as wider national and worldwide requirements, to work effectively and professionally, to make a difference and importantly, at the same time to have fun. 

 This was a good example of how we work – and hopefully might encourage others to come and join us.”