Open days at Blackdown Healthy Living Centre

‘Last time I came here, this was a fire-blackened wreck of a building, now it's fantastic’ said Hemyock resident Julie Steed, ‘these facilities will make a big difference to the community’.

 

The BHLC is the brainchild of the Healthy Living in the Community Committee and Dr Jonathan Meads, the retired head of the Blackdown Practice. ‘The Primary Care system (the NHS) is largely geared towards waiting until you become ill, then curing or caring for you’ he said, ‘this is about keeping you healthy, to try and prevent illness in the first place.  It is aimed at all sections of the community. It’s a much cheaper, more effective and more fun way of keeping people healthy.’ 

 

This deceptively simple, but far-reaching idea has led to the creation of the Centre, which has a gym, canteen, training facilities, meeting rooms, complementary therapy rooms, kitchen and the day care centre for the elderly. It will have more extensive youth facilities when the conversion work on the old garage site next-door is completed. These are planned to include a music room, a large hall, and possibly workshops. The money has come partly from the Exeter Airport fund, from Section 106 money and from local contributions. 

 

‘This is for the whole of the Blackdowns, not just Hemyock’ said Roger Lambert, a Trustee, ‘the ideas behind current buzzwords like citizenship skills and the Big Society are not new, and they contain a lot of common sense. We have been working towards this for years, and are now in a position to really make a difference.’

 

For further information see www.tbhlc.org.uk or phone Anne Monk on 01823 680687

 

Photos;