Team joins bid to raise awareness

NHS Tayside’s colposcopy team is supporting Cervical Cancer Prevention Week with a series of events to raise awareness of the importance of regular screening.

Throughout the week, healthcare staff will be hosting awareness stands at hospitals, shopping centres and supermarkets across Tayside where women can ask questions and discuss any concerns they may have about cervical smear tests.

Information packs will be available for visitors and the team will collect feedback about how best to engage with women to increase screening rates.

The team will also offer same-day smears to women who are overdue or who are over-25 and haven’t had a smear.

Cervical screening saves 5,000 lives in the UK every year and prevents eight out of ten cervical cancers from developing. In Scotland, all women between aged 25 to 50 are offered a cervical screening test every three years and those 50 to 65 are offered screening every five years.

Aaron Puzey, 44, used an exercise bike and a virtual reality app that he created himself to cycle between the landmarks on a route which was more than 900 miles long. And he hopes his invention — the CycleVR — will take off across the country.

The Monifeith man, who works as a software engineer for Denki Games, is believed to be the first person to have ever completed such a challenge through virtual reality.

He used a TV monitor and Google Street View images through his 3D virtual reality set to recreate the gruelling challenge.

Although Aaron admitted he’s not a sporty person, he still managed to burn 50,000 calories since beginning his challenge in May last year.

Speaking afterwards, Aaron said: “I don’t really like exercise, I find it boring. I only do it because I know it’s good for me.

“I’ve been doing a little bit of cycling every day after work for years but I got sick of staring at the same blank wall all the time.

“I’d been thinking about using virtual reality for a while and then it suddenly occurred to me that Google Street View is a great way of seeing the other parts of the world without having to actually go there.

“Becoming the first person to cycle from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in virtual reality is hugely exciting and feels like a great achievement.”

The virtual cycle took Aaron around eight months to complete with 85 hours of cycling taking in 300 towns and villages along with some famous landmarks.

Luckily for Aaron, he didn’t have to endure some of the arduous

A DUNDEE man has cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats — without even leaving his living room.