Claire Rayner- Inspirational Woman

I have just heard of the death of Clare Rayner. What an inspirational life she led.

I think Clare Rayner was one of the unsung heroes of feminism. She got stuck with the title of agony aunt but she was so much more than that. She was a talented, well educated, wise woman who talked about her early life with painful honesty. She started life as a nurse, stopped that when her children were born, and carved out a career for herself as a journalist and writer.

She championed the cause of the patient, speaking out on the topic of MRSA and the mundane topic of proper cleaning and hygiene in hospitals.

Honours were heaped on her; she was an O.B.E and a doctor of Oxford Brooks University to name just two. And talk about being a multi tasker! She wrote novels, factual books and was a journalist.  And she was President of the Patient’s Association and took part in a national review of Nursing.

She was fearless in what she would openly discuss and well ahead of her time. She spoke out about safe sex in the 80s, she talked about cancer in a way that was accessible to all, (she herself had a double mastectomy), and she was passionate about the National Health Service. Her views and opinions were regularly sought by politicians and officials. And ill health appears not to have dimmed her spirit, as you will know if you heard her speaking out about the Pope’s visit to Britain a few weeks before her death.

I am surprised by the depth of my reaction to her death. She was an astonishing woman who has saved untold numbers of lives because of her work in the health field, and her caring and compassionate advice. You could, as a friend of mine said, listen to Claire without squirming. Considering the topics she tackled that’s no mean feat!

Looking After You

‘When we’re well we want so many things, but when we’re sick we want only one’.

It’s so true, isn’t it? Like many of you, I suspect, I glibly talk about health and happiness being important yet consciously working to maintain my health is not one of my more obvious priorities. But without it all of my other goals will need revisiting.  It should be top of my list!

So I am resolved to take better care of my physical health from this moment on. I don’t want to lose it to know the value of it!

How about you?

Does Lack of Confidence Make You Fat?

Women and Exercise

Recent research from the Public Health Agency of Canada asked 5,176 people how confident they were that they could exercise for half a day three or four times a week, how often they actually did work out, and how they felt about physical activity.

What they found was that a person’s belief in their own sporting abilities was highly significant in how often they worked out. And that women’s lack of belief in their physical prowess was holding them back!

Men, the researchers found, were 10% more likely to think they were physically strong enough to exercise than women were.

Also men were 40% more likely than women to go out and do some form of physical activity.

Sai Yi Pan, from the Public Health Agency of Canada, who led the study, said: “Our findings highlight the need for health promotion programs to enhance people’s confidence and motivation, as well as providing education on the health benefits of physical activity”.

Once again, if you say you can ,you can. If you say you can’t, you can’t. Both are equally true!

The research, which began in 2002 ,has just been published in the journal BMC Public Health; this link will take you to the BMC web site.