Being Thankful.

This week has been the first ever Step it up for Steps Week for STEPS Conductive Education Centre in Shepshed, Leicestershire. The aim was to raise the profile of the amazing work, and shout about the benefits derived by the children, who have motor disorders such as Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, who attend STEPS for conductive education therapy.

Yesterday was our big Open Day at the STEPS Centre and we worked hard to attract as many visitors as possible to visit the school, meet some of the children, chat to the staff and hopefully achieve some financial support to help fund the remarkable facility which helps these wonderful children in such a valuable way but costs around £200,000 to run each year.

The local media were brilliant. Central ITV did a wonderful piece which went out on Wednesday’s 6 o’clock news and this brought four families who had children with motor dysfunctions to visit the school with a view to them attending on a regular basis. They had not been aware of STEPS before. One family had young twins – both with cerebral palsy. That would be so tough for that family as one child with CP must be hard work. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have two of the same age!

During the day BBC Radio Leicester came along with their radio car and interviewed a STEPS mum, Sally, Dr Heather Crate who is the founder and President of STEPS, and myself as Patron. As well as talking about STEPS we also had some fun and entertaining activities for people to enjoy. Radio Leicester reporter, Julie Mayer (who is also the wife of the morning show presenter, Tony Wadsworth, that she reports for) bravely volunteered to step on to our very sophisticated weighing scales which print out your body fat percentage, muscle mass, weight of your bones (and trust me, forget using ‘I have heavy bones’ as an excuse for weighing more – bones do not weigh much!), your hydration levels, our BMI, your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and your metabolic age. The last detail is very revealing and it is determined by your weight, gender, age, height, fat percentage, your muscle mass, your BMI, etc. Some of our Trial Dieters have had predicted ages as high as 89!

Julie Mayer is a slip of a thing. At 52 years old and 5” 1” tall and with a very youthful figure, Julie weighs 7 ½ st, plus she is very fit and looks great. Live ‘on air’ on the show Julie bravely steps on to the scales and has to give out all her person details. When the scales printed out her results there were shrieks of delight as her metabolic age was predicted at 37 – 15 years younger than her actual age! You can imagine the banter that then followed between her and her husband-presenter! It was great fun.

Off air, Julie also had a go at the ‘how many times can you step on and off a Reebok step in 60 seconds?’ challenge. She managed a superb 67 times in the minute, to shouts of encouragement as she attempted to break the day’s record set by a 16-year-old who had achieved 81! Great fun was had by all! And, thanks to the sale of Mike’s abstract paintings, sale of toys and some of our silverware (the rest is going on ebay), we managed to raise over £1000 in the day. Plus lots of folk took away our pledge forms which we hope they will use to make a small donation to STEPS on a regular giving basis.

The whole day was fabulous. The sun shone and visitors were able to eat their low-fat and free refreshments in the Sensory Garden. The raffle was well supported and all or my Trial Dieters popped along for their weekly weigh-in which boosted the number of visitors. We also invited all the staff from our offices at Quorn House to pop along as they are all involved in fundraising for STEPS. And one of my star trial dieters, 21 year old Ryan, has promised to walk from Leicester to London along the Grand Union Canal next year in aid of STEPS. All together, a momentous and enjoyable day and certainly one to be repeated next year.

Two of the mums of children who had previously attended STEPS, who were now attending mainstream school and in their teens, also asked me for some advice. Children with Cerebral palsy and Down syndrome sometimes have difficulty in keeping their weight down because of their restricted mobility. I had a lovely chat with them, and one of their daughters, to try and find areas of their diet that could be slightly altered to help prevent any weight problems. Eating at regular meal-times and not snacking on high-fat foods in between, such as crisps, biscuits and cakes was my main message but I also suggested they try to exercise in their wheel-chairs with the seated workout we did a few years ago on one of my DVDs. One of the workout-sections within my Ultimate Whole Body Workout DVD offers a fantastic workout for anyone who is physically restricted. A copy will be in the post to each family today. Let’s hope it helps.

But the thought-provoking moment of the day came from my colleague, Linda Parker, our in-house PR manager. A week last Sunday Linda tripped over and broke her wrist in two places. Bravely she has managed to travel from Derbyshire each day on the train as she can’t drive at the moment, to get to work. This is despite the pain and frustrations of her restricted mobility that her broken arm has caused. Linda said, “Sitting here today (on one of the stalls) and looking at the children who come to STEPS has made me realise how lucky I am. My arm will mend in a few weeks but for these children, their disabilities are permanent – I am so fortunate, breaking my arm is nothing by comparison”. I think that is something every one of us should appreciate.

Let’s hope STEPS is able to continue the fantastic work that it achieves and we can all look forward to another great Open Day next year. Let’s hope none of us forget how fortunate we are that we are healthy and physically able.