The Owlss book club has been running quite successfully for a while now in Hull and Scunthorpe and we are hoping to expand the service to Macclesfield in the near future.

With such a lot of members now, there is a high demand for our books and inevitably, there is never enough to go round.  It would therefore be very much appreciated if those members who have borrowed a book ensure it is returned promptly. Any books taken out at one meeting should always be returned at the next.  If, for any reason you are unable to attend a meeting, please contact us so we can make alternative arrangement for its return.

If you have a book to do with weight loss surgery that you no longer need we would be very pleased to add it to our collection.

Unfortunately, due to illness, our scheduled April guest speaker, Mr Kieth O'Brien, had to pull out at very short notice.  After a desperate plea for help to Denise Hutchinson, our contact at the Spire, Hull & East Riding, we were relieved to hear that she had somehow managed to 'persuade' three of the theatre's nursing team to stay back after their shift to talk to the group.

 















Carol, Germano and Pam, members of the Spire's theatre staff

Carol Wilson, a Staff Nurse in theatre, was first to address the group, giving a brief explanation of the procedure for caring for patients during surgery, which included a guide to how a patient is positioned on the operating-table that left little to the imagination and drew a few gasps from our pre-oppers in the audience!

We have been contacted by Josef Wallace, a 4th year medical student based at the Hull York Medical school. Joe is one of a group of students currently running a project (based in York hospital) to evaluate the information provided to patients on weight loss surgery pathways and looking into ways that this could be improved to give patients the information that they require both before and after undergoing weight loss surgery.

We have been approached by Isla Harvey a journalist working for Barcroft Media UK, an international press agency that provides news and features for magazines and newspapers.

Isla writes feature articles for the UK national papers and major women's magazines and has been tasked to find some of the largest people in the UK to follow their progress before, during and after bariatric surgery.

With the Hull Group Meeting now regularly attracting over fifty people each time, the Group Leaders are concerned that it is becoming more difficult to get around the room to chat with everyone and we are particularly concious of the fact that some people, perhaps attending for the first time, may not get the opportunity to talk with someone on a one-to-one basis, who has already had bariatric surgery.

To try to resove this problem, we would like our long-term members to consider acting as Table Hosts. If you have had weight loss surgery, you have all the necessary experience required. So please, to volunteer or for further details, get in touch with Colin or Debz and together we can continue to provide the best possible support to our members.

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We have been asked if it would be possible to print off articles and other information to your desk top printers as many members would like to pass on details to others who cannot access the internet.

This is now possible, simply click on the printer icon that appears at the top of each article. 

We do ask however, that you to give due consideration to the environment before churning out page after page.

Whilst we do not charge a subscription fee to our members, we do need to raise enough funds to cover the hosting fees of the Website, Forum and Chat facilities which currently run at over £25 per month as well as printing costs of leaflets and other out-of-pocket expenses.

At the Hull and Scunthorpe Group Meetings we hold a 'Healthy Hamper' raffle as a way of raising funds and everyone attending is encouraged to bring along something appropriate to contribute.

Depending on what we get in, we try to have a number of prizes for both the pre-op and post-op patient.

Colin walks tall
As well as March 22nd this year being Mothering Sunday, it was also the 2nd anniversary of Group Leader, Colin's weight loss surgery.

To mark the occasion in some small way (in addition to having such a drastic hair cut!), Colin, with partner Barrie and their two dogs, Benson and Poppy, decided to tackle a particularly heavy-going stretch of the wonderful Yorkshire Wolds Way.

Since the start of the year, they have tried to do some hill walking almost every weekend come rain or shine, gradually increasing the distance by a few miles each time.