Photos and comments from our Active and Confident Together groups in August.
Our Active and Confident Together (ACT) activities are targeting people with long term health conditions, frailty, hidden illnesses, and older people, thanks to some extra funding to the Cotswold Community Wellbeing Service from the NHS through the Cotswold Integrated Locality Partnership.
The activities have included art, gardening, wellbeing walks, yoga, and the T'ai Chi and seated exercise groups which our photographer Peter visited this month. See below for a gallery of photos from each group, and some comments from the participants that show just how valuable these groups have been for the people who have joined them.
CWS-ACT Seated Exercise Group at Tetbury with tutor Phil Seal
- “The exercises definitely help, and being together is really beneficial because I live on my own. Phil is excellent, his sense of humour really helps.” - Margery
- “I think it’s brilliant and I look forward to coming here, and the exercises are good. It relaxes you, and the teacher Phil is very, very good, I’m going to join his other classes too.” - Jean
- “It’s brilliant, I have a dicky hip which they can’t operate on, and doing this is really freeing it up.” - Tony
CWS-ACT T'ai Chi Group at Stow on the Wold with tutor Clive Birch
- “I came here as a referral from my Doctor and I think it’s all part of a more holistic approach to your mental and physical health. It’s made me more lithe and flexible – it gives you more flexibility and balance. It gives you focus, and socially, there is a nice interaction. It’s free and I think it is absolutely brilliant." - Pamela
- “I certainly enjoy coming, it gets me to exercise in a way that I wouldn’t do otherwise, and Clive’s very good. I like Clive a lot.” - Ian
- “It makes you feel quite relaxed and almost at peace with yourself. I also do yoga and another Tai Chi class. It settles you, makes you feel relaxed, but you’re using lots of parts of your body that you don’t realise you’re using. You don’t realise how much you’ve worked.” - Lyn
- “I have Parkinsons, and this is one of things that the doctor recommended. I find it quite difficult to do because of the tremor that I have, but the more relaxed I am, the better the tremor is. I also play golf and if I’m not on the golf course I come here. I also go to the gym, and I’ve incorporated some Tai Chi moves into my gym routine. They complement each other.” – David
- “I’m hoping it’s going to improve my balance. I have a tendency to fall over! This is my fifth session. I also come to keep my husband company.” - Ruth