dyscover – rediscovering communication

Posted 18th March 2019
Have successfully completed walk number 1 Bude to Crackington Haven, the very first long walk for an enthusiastic Flo!
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/frances-wood4

Posted 18th March 2019
Our amazing past SLT, Frances and her 3 dogs, are doing a fantastic challenge to raise funds for us in our 25th Year.

Frances says “ Saffy, Pippin, and Flo and I will be walking the 288 and a quarter miles of the Cornwall Coast Path to raise funds for Dyscover, a charity close to my heart, and whose 25th Birthday it is this year.
The dogs and I will promise to keep you updated with photos and stories of our adventures along the way, so please follow us as we make our way from Bude to Plymouth! “
We will be sharing Frances’s adventures and photos on our Facebook page. To support Frances and her dogs please donate on her Just Giving page.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/frances-wood4

Posted 18th March 2019
Supported by Ambassador Group Co-ordinator Caroline McDonald, Bryan Smith gave a fantastic presentation yesterday to an audience of around 20 members of the general public at a Coffee Morning in Redhill Library. The audience were clearly moved and inspired by his personal of his strokes and aphasia, and how Dyscover had helped him. They lots of questions and complimented Bryan on his bravery and determination!

Posted 18th March 2019

The Kingston Quaker Centre has been enlivened by the sound of music on Tuesday afternoons this term as the Tuesday afternoon group enjoyed a 5-week Music Therapy Course led by Elizabeth Nightingale from Chiltern Music Therapy. In their final session, the members sang along to lyrics from ‘Staying Alive’ by Bee Gees, jammed to some popular tracks and composed a fantastic piece of music together. During the course they performed lots of vocal exercises (singing particular vowel sounds and phrases) and rhythm exercises (keeping time to music with instruments) and listening to music to focus on attention. It was ‘fantastic’ said Deena and Debbie mentioned how much she’d enjoyed the singing.

Posted 6th March 2019
We had a very successful evening supporting the Ashtead Bridge event. The Dyscover team provided the “bridge tea”, a raffle and our ambassador, Elaine talked about how Dyscover has helped her.
It was a busy evening for our volunteers, but well worth their efforts, as the event raised a massive £653 for Dyscover – Thank you to all involved!

Posted 28th February 2019
Alison Carlier spent the afternoon with Dyscover Members exploring observation techniques whilst painting daffodils. The results were fantastic!

Posted 28th February 2019

Dyscover were out in force yesterday at City University for the Eva Park research project dissemination our SLTA, Caroline McDonald and Member, Nial, both gave fantastic presentations about what being part of the virtual world was like!

Posted 21st February 2019

11 attendees attended our Training on Friday – 7 of which came from the charity ‘TALK’ who match volunteers as communication partners for people with aphasia to have 1:1 conversation opportunity – we welcome anyone working with people with aphasia to our termly training sessions where we can share our expertise and experience as well as provide an open networking opportunity for staff and volunteers working in the field where they can benefit from the professional input our SLT’s have in these training sessions . All attendees reported improved knowledge and greater confidence with one attendee feed back saying: “Thank you very much – I really enjoyed the session and found you were really responsive to what the group wanted to discuss, while still covering all of the content.”

Posted 18th February 2019

Representatives of Dyscover enjoyed a celebratory evening at Loseley Park last week as one of 13 Surrey based Charities who have been nominated for a Queens Award. The event was hosted by this years High Sheriff, Jim Glover and included our assessors Lorna and Ian.
This year the nominees provide a diverse range services ranging from wildlife conservation to community transport to baby equipment for low income families. Several organisations including Dyscover offer support for health and wellbeing. The common link is our investment in volunteers as a vital resource which enables us all to run and to develop.

The nominations from Surrey are being considered by the Cabinet office with the results expected in June. Rosemary reports some positive feedback from the moderator who said she “was particularly impressed at how we developed specialist skills in volunteers and in our link we with research establishments, assisting student volunteers in their journeys to get onto university courses.”
……Fingers crossed!

Posted 18th February 2019

Whilst visiting Singapore our president, Gill, has enjoyed meeting Evelyn – a Speech and Language Therapist who has recently started the Chit Chat Cafe, a support group for people with aphasia in Singapore –we look forward to hearing more about this interesting set up when Gill next visits.