Dear Editor,

On behalf of all of us at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, I want to say a huge thank-you to everyone who has supported us this year. You have kept us going through what has been another really tough year.

During the last year we have continued to see Covid-19 challenge us. We have continued to see an increase in demand for our services, and with shop closures and lack of fundraising events, the income that our charity depends on was being threatened.

But, faced with this chaos, we stayed strong and focused because our mission of No Life Half Lived was at the heart of every choice we made.

We have been determined to help people do more than just survive their condition and thanks to your unwavering support, we are helping them to really live.

This is what inspired us to stand shoulder to shoulder with our NHS colleagues in the fight against Covid by continuing to develop our Hospital to Home service to provide wraparound care for people living with a chest or heart condition of the effects of stroke, keeping people safe and well in their own homes as they return home from hospital while helping to relieve the pressure on our NHS.

We entered a partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver care for people living with Long Covid.

It’s what inspired us to support over 12,687 people through our care services.

With your help, we continued to spread Kindness across Scotland.

We have seen over 6,350 Kindness volunteers deliver over 35,250 acts of kindness across your local communities, helping people who were isolated and alone through kindness

phone calls, shopping trips, dog walks and online activity.

Thankfully, we have been able to welcome back some live fundraising events and we have been overwhelmed with people’s enthusiasm for running, cycling, walking over flames, and navigating muddy obstacle courses.

So, I want to say a heartfelt thank

you to all our donors, supporters, volunteers and staff for your inspirational work during another disrupted and difficult year.

Thank you for every donation – big or small it has made a huge difference.

Because of you we can be there for people when it matters most, we are able to help people to do more than

survive, and to help them lives their lives to the full.

We are feeling optimistic for a better 2022 and I hope we will have your continued support.

Together we can and will make sure there is no life half lived in Scotland.

Jane-Claire Judson

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland

Take care of your older neighbours

Local care at home company CERA Care is urging you to think about our older neighbours in our local communities as we head into the depths of winter.

With the increase in frequency of winter storms, can you help ensure a vulnerable or older neighbour is cosy and warm, is having regular meals and hot drinks, and moving about to keep fit and healthy, body and mind.

Handing in a card, may bring a smile and cheer to loneliness, this cold winter.

Ringing a door bell, standing back to the required distance or just having a wee chat from the garden gate, can make a huge difference.

Our community spirit has never been more important with all the social restrictions we have faced.

Cera Care is one of the biggest providers of professional care at home in Scotland to older and less able people.

This support is provided on contract

to local authorities through its network of branch offices across the country.

Care at home brings independent living to people in their own homes.

Care workers provide essential day-to-day care and personal care as well as respite care and support to people returning home from hospital.

Our team of committed care workers ensure safe and happy lives for older and less able people living independently in their own homes.

Sometimes our care workers may be the only person someone talks to in a day.

As Christmas approaches, and with the storms we have had to deal with, we would encourage you to look out for your neighbours and for those less able, who may be living alone.

Or could you help with delivering some food shopping, or clear a snowy or icy path?

Just a smiling face can make such a difference.

Never have our communities been more important.

Sending a note, a greetings card or picking up the phone to someone just to say hello can make a massive difference.

With so little daylight through the coming weeks in the depths of a Scottish winter, it can be even more gloomy for many who live alone.

Just a little ‘hello’ can brighten someone’s day.

Sarah Herriott

CERA Care