Welcome to August's Volunteer Network News

Despite the lack of summer weather, there is lots of bright news to update our volunteers on in this edition, including a special update on the Better Bones campaign with the Sunday Express from our Chief Executive, Craig Jones.

We are also excited to announce the launch of Dance For Your Bones, a new exercise programme developed with experts from Scottish Ballet. Our Sheffield Volunteer Team agreed to take a sneak preview and trial the dance at the July meeting and have shared their experience.

We have also included a photo montage of some of the volunteer activity that has been underway recently. Please keep sending your pictures to us so we can ensure we can celebrate your efforts.

Best wishes,

Helen, Fiona and Lorna

VPE team

An update on the Better Bones campaign with the Sunday Express

Our joint campaign with the Sunday Express newspaper, the Better Bones campaign, has now been running for several weeks, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the level of support.

CEO Craig Jones has provided the following update to share with our volunteers:

“As the campaign has gathered pace, we’re seeing the first signs that osteoporosis is becoming a popular cause, starting out on the journey that the menopause, prostate cancer and HIV campaigners have shown the way on.  

“Since we launched this effort, we’ve secured the support of 230 Parliamentarians. The political campaign runs alongside our continuing effort to inspire the public at large to check their fracture risk using our new risk checker tool. 170,000 people have now checked their risk, with thousands getting an early diagnosis based on their results. 

“Thank you to all members of this growing coalition, including our volunteers across the UK. Thank you for contacting your local MPs, sharing our posts on social media and promoting the campaign in your communities. We’ll continue to keep you updated. Thanks for your support!”

You can support the Campaign:

Lots of you have already written to your local MP, but we would like to encourage more of you to join the campaign.

Maggie, one of our volunteers explains why she got involved and explains how you can too.

"For some time, I’ve been aware of the fact that not everyone has access to a Fracture Liaison Services (FLS). I received excellent help and support from my local FLS, and I was aware of the positive impact they can make in guiding individuals from the diagnosis of osteoporosis through to treatment. My positive experience and strong believe that FLS’s need to be more widely available encouraged me to lobby my MP regarding this issue.

“The ROS can provide an online template letter together with information on locating your MP’s contact details. All I needed to do was “top and tail” the letter and add a few words about my experience of osteoporosis. I decided to write about my positive experience of attending a FLS, highlighting the need for such services to be available throughout the UK.

“I also found the online information on the ROS’s campaign very useful especially the input from the Sunday Express which, at the time of me writing to my MP, was partnering with ROS by publishing a six-week campaign on osteoporosis and how it impinges on all aspects of life.

“The process of lobbying my MP on behalf of the ROS has been straight forward but more importantly has resulted in a timely response from my MP. 

“I urge all of my fellow ROS volunteers to contact their MP or elected representative with a view to encouraging them to support our campaign and ensure that everyone who sustains a fracture is given the opportunity of accessing a FLS.”

To find out more please email James or visit our Lobbying Your MP webpage

Thank you, Maggie, for sharing your experience and congratulations on getting a positive response from your MP!

A snapshot of recent volunteer activity

We are always grateful for the time and energy our volunteers give, and love seeing and hearing about what you’ve been doing. We hope you’ll also enjoy seeing these photos of what your fellow volunteers have been getting up to in recent months.

Please keep sharing your stories and photos with us and letting us know what’s been happening.

Dance For Your Bones – an innovative exercise programme

We are excited to announce the launch of Dance For Your Bones, a new exercise programme developed with experts from Scottish Ballet.

The Sheffield Volunteer Team agreed to take a sneak preview and trial the dance session at their July meeting when they were focusing on exercise.

Comments from attendees on the day included ‘great fun’, ‘good to get some cardio from it’ and ‘can we have more like this please!’

The Sheffield group organisers said:

“A few of us struggled to grasp the steps on the first attempt, but all agreed that the format and section-by-section breakdown of instructions would certainly help when we get a chance to practice at home. Our members were really inspired by it!"

This short instructional film combines weight-bearing exercises that provide moderate impact with specially designed dance movements, aimed at improving and maintaining bone health.

Dance For Your Bones provides step-by-step instructions for a series of graceful and energetic movements that can be followed by individuals of all abilities, at their own pace. The routine includes low-impact movements for those unable to perform moderate-impact moves, ensuring inclusivity for all participants.  

Support groups are welcome to utilise the new Dance For Your Bones video. It is approximately 30 minutes long and breaks down the dance into six short sessions which build into the full dance.

If you are looking for a different idea for a support group meeting, consider using the Dance For Your Bones video.

In addition, we also have other exercise resources and videos that you can use.

Please get in touch with the Volunteering & Public Engagement Team for further support.  

Thank you to Sheffield Volunteer Team for trailing the new video and providing the photos and feedback. And thanks also to all the Community Advocate Network members and other volunteers who helped develop the videos.

Planning your programmes for 2024 – a hybrid option

Wendy from Cardiff and District support group tells us how the group have benefitted from utilising a hybrid approach for their meetings:

"During the various lockdowns all of our meetings were on Teams, and we attracted some members that we'd not seen before - people who either had transport problems or were very unwell and found it difficult to leave the house.

"By late summer 2022, things had settled down enough for us to hold an in-person CAMEO meeting. We had quite good attendance, but it was obvious that many of these people did not use a computer, so had not had any meetings since before the pandemic. And importantly, no one from our online meetings attended. This left us with a bit of a problem as we now appeared to be running two groups.

"So, this year we went hybrid! We have had three online meetings and three in person meetings. Next year we will try to have more of a balance between online and in person meetings.

"A hybrid system certainly answers a need. The online meetings don't cost us anything, so we are making a saving on room hire. This hybrid system works quite well for us as a group, so we will continue like this for the present.”

Thank you to Wendy and the Cardiff Support Group for sharing their experiences.

Membership and Volunteering

Volunteers are offered ‘honorary’ membership while they are actively volunteering for the charity. Honorary membership means there is no charge to the individual (your membership is free). The VPE team can set up membership for each new volunteer as they start volunteering with us.

Although every volunteer is offered honorary membership, many of our volunteers choose to continue to support the charity and pay for their membership annually (or every 10 years if they’re a gold member). Thank you to everyone who is willing and able to pay for their membership while volunteering with us. This is entirely optional and not expected if you are actively volunteering.

Volunteers who have been paying for their membership can request to take up honorary membership at any time while volunteering with us. Unfortunately, we cannot refund any monies already paid, but we will action the request as soon as possible to stop any further payments (e.g. if paying by monthly direct debit).

Please note: Volunteers may be included in emails about any changes to membership rates or payment methods. They will usually come from our Membership team colleagues.

Volunteers can contact the VPE team with any membership questions and can also arrange for honorary membership, if you don’t already receive it.

FAQs

Can support group attendees still receive a discount on ROS membership?

Yes - support group attendees are entitled to £5 off their ROS membership, reducing a standard individual membership to just £19 per year. To take advantage of this offer when signing up, all attendees need to do is let the membership team know which support group they attend and mention the £5 discount offer.

If they are signing up by post and paying by cheque, attendees should include a cheque for the discount rate, and include a covering letter explaining which group they attend and that they would like to take advantage of the £5 support group discount.

Community Presenters

Earlier this year, we worked with our Community Presenter Volunteers to rework the existing community presenter slides and create a new Lunch and Learn session, which is a shorter, more concise version of the existing awareness presentation.

This is designed to be held online for a more corporate audience, and ideal for staff wellbeing, awareness days or Lunch and Learn sessions, as the talk can be delivered in around 45 minutes by one of our Community Presenter Volunteers. Groups also receive a resource pack for the session to share with their attendees.

We are building a new page on the website to direct people to, but in the meantime, please do get in touch with us if you think the new Lunch and Learn sessions would be a good fit for your organisation, a local employer or someone else you know.

This change has given us the opportunity to look at how we deliver awareness talks in the community, as well as online. We know some of you are already out and about delivering awareness sessions in your local area, and we would love to offer you support with this such as training, peer support and a resources pack with up-to-date slides and materials you could use to deliver your talks.

Are you delivering talks or attending events in your community?

If you are already delivering awareness talks or similar sessions in your community or would be interested in starting to take part in awareness sessions, and would like to take us up on this offer, please get in touch: volunteerengagement@theros.org.uk  

World Osteoporosis Day – 20 October

What have you got planned for World Osteoporosis Day on Friday 20 October?

If you have a support group event planned on or near the day, why not theme your meeting to celebrate the day? Or how about holding an awareness stand in your local area to promote the new risk checker?

Some groups have already made plans for the day:

Norfolk and Suffolk Volunteer Team are having an afternoon tea at Riverside House Hotel in Mildenhall with Trustee Peter Gotham as their speaker. Newtown Volunteer Team are welcoming local consultant Dr Ian Thompson from Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth to their 20 October meeting, and Southampton and District Support Group are turning their October Friendly Circle meeting orange by asking attendees to wear something orange to mark the day.

Whatever you do to mark the day be sure to let us know what you get up to and remember to send in any photos of the event so we can celebrate with you.

Thank you for reading VNN.

If you’ve got a story to share or would like to see something featured, please get in touch.

volunteerengagement@theros.org.uk