Yearly Archives: 2013
Laptop Presentation
Amovate and Vale da Telha Golfers Pitch In!
Amovate President Peter Johnson this week presented a state-of-the-art laptop to the CMR Sul Rehabilitation Centre São Brás de Alportel which in recent months has successfully treated two Vale da Telha residents during their recovery from serious illness.
The laptop was bought with cash from Amovate’s Charity Fund plus a generous €200 donation from the members of the Vale Da Telha Golf Society, who felt it was such a worthy cause they wished to use some of their own surplus funds to help out.
The charitable donation came about as a result from an appeal by Jacqui Lawry who spent three months at the Centre which was able restore her mobility following an unsuccessful back operation in Lisbon that left her unable to walk.
On Monday December 16, Jacqui, her partner Rickie (“Diamond”) Brogden and the Amovate President travelled to the centre beyond Faro where they were welcomed by Dr Arminda Lopes, head of the unit.
She took them to one of the rooms at the centre where all the staff of her department gathered to witness the handover ceremony, as Peter presented Dr Lopes with the laptop, applauded by her team.
It was an emotional moment for a tearful Jacqui, seeing all the highly-skilled professionals who had worked with her during her extensive and intensive treatment and rehabilitation assembled in one place.
“These people mean so much to me, they are fantastic and so caring and dedicated,” she said. “It means so much to be able to give them something back to help them continue the work they do, restoring desperately ill people to a normal life, or close to it.”
Said Rickie: “As they came round each day to see Jacqui they had all the patients’ data stored on a laptop, which was old, outdated and very, very slow. It took ages to call up the information for each patient and was driving the staff mad.
“It made us wonder if we could help because we felt we should do something for the unit due to the wonderful way they treated Jacqui and got her back on her feet.
“We thought about Amovate and the way you had raised money for Portimao Hospital and the Madrugada Charity to buy equipment after they had cared for people from Vale da Telha.
“Jaqui told the doctors there about Amovate and we asked the staff what they would like, if Amovate was able to help. They said they would welcome a new laptop with which they could all work quickly and efficiently.
“When we approached Amovate their Committee decided right away that they felt this was something they could do and should do. And it was also great news to hear that the golfers here on Vale da Telha also wanted to help out and contribute to this donation.
“We are so grateful for their support and we know the unit at CMR will value this highly and put it to good use.”
Dr Lopes provided Amovate with all the specifications required to make optimum use of the laptop, and we arranged for the full package to be loaded onto what was already an expensive model.
The doctor told us: “This laptop will mean the staff will be able to work more quickly and efficiently when seeing individual patients and really will help with their care and treatment.
“It will benefit everyone—patients AND staff, and we are so grateful to Jacqui and to Amovate ansd the Vale Da Telha Golf Society for this wonderful gift.”
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Located in the hills behind São Brás de Alportel, the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation South (CMR Sul), a former sanatorium, has improved the health service in the area of in-patient rehabilitation not only in the Algarve and Alentejo region, but also at a national level.
CMR Sul carries out inter-disciplinary rehabilitation, in cases which need prolonged and complex interventions. It treats patients with spinal cord injuries, cranial-cerebral trauma, stroke and other neurological disorders, rheumatological conditions, orthopaedic, pulmonary and cardiovascular disorders.
With a capacity of 54 in-patient beds, CMR Sul provides care for an annual average of 3200 in overnight stays of varying periods, plus 44,000 outpatient consultations and sessions of the day hospital.
Defibrillator Drive
Here is an announcement to make your heart beat faster!
Amovate is working with other local community groups to buy from the UK two state-of-the-art defibrillators specifically to benefit the residents up here on Vale da Telha and the surrounding areas.
Several other groups, including the Tuesday quiz players and the Vale da Telha Golf Society have already pledged their financial support, as we begin the process of raising the funds for machines the Bombeiros say will be valuable life-saving aids to what is largely an ageing retirement community.
It is expected that the two defibrillators, and a training machine will cost in the region of €4,500, so all the fund-raising help we can get from everyone in the community will be invaluable to achieve that target.
But ahead of this we have already joined forces with the Bombeiros who have inspired this project, asking Amovate for support in getting it off the ground and launching the drive to buy these lifesaving machines.
One of these will be placed with the Bombeiros for the use of the entire Aljezur region and its 5884 inhabitants, from Odeceixe in the north to Carrapateira in the south.
The other will be kept permanently here on Vale da Telha.
The Bombeiros are keen to establish a corps of volunteers of all different nationalities on VdT to be trained by them, initially in Basic CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), which you may recognise from the Vinnie Jones “Stayin’ Alive” commercials.
Then, they will ask those volunteers who become certified in CPR through this training if any of them wish to be further trained to become part of a group of individuals thus qualified to use the defibrillator kept on Vale da Telha.
The inaugural meeting of what we hope will be a project that becomes a Community-wide exercise will be hosted by the Bombeiros at the Old School House in Vales on Thursday January 9th when their experts will outline their plans.
They will provide full information, so everyone will know how the programme and the training will unfold.
Then, the Basic CPR training classes operated by the Bombeiros and by Amovate member and retired surgeon Dr David Quinton will begin later in January at a date to be announced.
We hope this project will become a Community exercise supported both by volunteers who become proficient in CPR and the use of the defibrillator, and also financially by everyone joining in the fund-raising activities and making contributions however large or small.
We know there are a number of people living up here who have retired from the nursing and medical professions, and even some former UK police officers, who already have experience in this field.
We would hope these experienced people will be amongst the first to offer their services.
The life-saving defibrillator which is to have a permanent home up here will be kept at the Hotel Vale da Telha at the Pines Roundabout, a central point in the community.
It will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the newly-trained volunteers.
Also, of course, several members of the Aljezur Bombeiros also live on Vale da Telha, which means there should always be a trained operator to use the defibrillator whenever an emergency arises that requires its use.
Amovate is to purchase one defibrillator outright from cash currently in our Charity Fund, thanks to the support of our members and friends at our various functions throughout the year.
You will recall that Amovate, working with two UK Charities, recently brokered and part-subsidised financially, the amazing donation of more than €50,000 worth of firefighting and life-saving equipment to our local Bombeiros, something which made newspaper headlines both here and back in the UK.
And within the past couple of weeks some of that equipment has been used to cut people free of their crashed vehicles up here in two serious incidents on Vale da Telha.
We are also providing an expensive and much-needed laptop to a care centre which has looked after a couple of our members in recent months whilst also, in the past two or three years, supplying nine wheelchairs to Portimao Hospital and funds to the Madrugada Charity to buy a ripple bed to ease the suffering of long-term bedridden patients.
Now, we plan to turn our 2014 Charity Fund into a drive for the two defibrillators, one of which is to be presented to the Bombeiros who currently have just the one to share amongst their four ambulances and two support vehicles.
There is absolutely no question these machines will save lives over the coming years—perhaps even yours, or a member of your family.
So we are asking all of you that if you think you can help in some way could you please attend the January 9th meeting at Amovate when the Bombeiros will outline and explain the project.
The initial Basic CPR training will make sure you can instantly and automatically answer these questions:
- Do you know what to do if someone next to you collapses, perhaps suffering a heart attack or some other serious medical condition?
- Can you make the difference in saving the life of that person?
- Do you know the fastest way to get the Bombeiros onto the scene to help you and the victim?
- Do you know the information that you will need to relay to them to ensure everything possible is done quickly and correctly?
We need you to turn up and offer your help, because Dr Quinton and the Bombeiros can train you to fill in those gaps.
The Christmas Party at the Marquee on Sunday December 22nd, beginning at 7.30pm—details of which can be found here on the Amovate website—will also represent the launch of our Defibrillator Fund to raise the money for that second machine to be presented to the Bombeiros, and a training machine.
A Tombola will be held during the evening to kick start the fund-raising and we would also ask our members and friends if they could donate prizes for the Tombola, to help make it a real success.
For example, Paulo at O Paulo Restaurant in Arrifana has become an enthusiastic supporter of the scheme and has kindly donated a meal for two at the restaurant as one of the prizes.
So, if you feel you can donate something worthwhile as an attractive prize please let us know. You can hand your donation to any Committee Member, whose names you will find by clicking on “Committee 2013-14” in the top strapline on the website’s home page.
You can also donate by e-mailing us at the address below and we will arrange a time and place to either collect your gift or have it dropped off to us at Amovate. Our e-mail address is:
Your support in the past has enabled us to help so many people and is already saving lives around the Aljezur area. We hope and pray we can continue to count on you in this latest very worthy cause which is not simply an Amovate project but one which, with your help, will become a Community Project.
THE AMOVATE COMMITTEE
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
Defibrillation is the definitive treatment for the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the affected heart with a device called a defibrillator. This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the arrhythmia, and allows normal sinus rhythm to be reestablished by the body’s natural pacemaker, in the sinoatrial node of the heart.
A major breakthrough was the introduction of portable defibrillators used out of the hospital. This was pioneered in the early 1960s by Prof. Frank Pantridge in Belfast.
Today portable defibrillators are among the many very important tools carried by ambulances.
They are the only proven way to resuscitate a person who has had a cardiac arrest unwitnessed by EMS who is still in persistent ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia at the arrival of pre-hospital providers.
Gradual improvements in the design of defibrillators, partly based on the work developing implanted versions, have led to the availability of Automated External Defibrillators.
These devices can analyse the heart rhythm by themselves, diagnose the shockable rhythms, and charge to treat. This means that no clinical skill is required in their use, allowing lay people to respond to emergencies effectively.
Amovate Christmas Party
CHRISTMAS IS COMING!
So, get ready to party…!
The Marquee at the Vale da Telha Hotel is again the location for what promises to be a fantastic Christmas celebration with live entertainment and a fabulous hot & cold Christmas buffet.
Put the date and time in your diaries: Sunday December 22nd, beginning at 7.30pm.
And we can also announce here—further details will be released once we have all the relevant information—that Amovate is to purchase from Britain a state-of-the-art defibrillator to benefit the community up here on Vale da Telha and the surrounding areas.
It will have a permanent home at the Hotel Vale da Telha, which is a central point and is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A group of volunteers will receive special training to use the defibrillator from Amovate member and retired surgeon Dr David Quinton.
Also, of course, several members of the Bombeiros also live on Vale da Telha which means there should always be a trained operator to use the defibrillator whenever an emergency arises that requires its use.
We also plan to make our 2014 Charity target a drive for a second defibrillator to be presented to the Bombeiros who currently have just the one to share amongst their four ambulances,
So, the Christmas Party will represent the launch of our Defibrillator Fund, and a tombola will be held during the evening to kick start the fund-raising.
Paulo, of O Paulo Restaurant at Arrifana has already donated a meal for two people as one of the prizes and if anyone else would like to donate prizes for the tombola, we would be very grateful.
The Christmas Party is once again organised by Amovate, and our new Entertainment Committee—Steve Baker, Rick Hursthouse and Brian (Rockindad) Jutsum—and we have called upon the amazing culinary skills of Hans, with help from Melanie and two or three others, to get the Christmas week off to a flying start.
Anyone who remembers the fantastic buffet provided by Hans at the Bavarian night in the Fonte do Vales a few years back will appreciate the excellence of his cuisine.
The meal will be three courses:
STARTER: Melon & ham, cheese, tomatoes, olives, prawns, cocktail sauce.
MAIN COURSE: This will comprise a hot main course served from the buffet including turkey and stuffing, hot pork, savoury rice, coleslaw, salad, potatoes in mayonnaise, hot pasta bake and French sticks.
DESSERT: Assorted desserts, plus nibbles of crisps, chocolates, nuts and much, much more.
And throughout the evening the entertainment will be provided by the beautiful and very talented singer, Ilze who wowed the members of the Walking Club when she appeared at one of their functions in the Marquee earlier in the summer.
More on Ilze later…
The tickets for all of this will be priced at just €15 apiece and, as we are limiting the numbers, it is important to reserve your ticket as quickly as possible, should you wish to attend.
You can buy them from any Committee Member, whose names you will find by clicking on “Committee 2013-14” in the top strapline on the website’s home page. This does not include the members of the new Fiscal Council who, by law, are an independent body and are NOT members of the Amovate Committee.
You can also reserve your tickets by e-mailing us at:
The bar will again be operated by Bruno (who owns the hotel) and his staff and will follow the formula from the Gala Ball in September, a cash bar located in the tent to the right of the entrance, with the same prices as at the Ball.
We have asked Bruno if he could provide Diet coke in cans rather than the “full-fat” version in three-litre bottles as happened last time, so we are hoping that can be sorted.
The Marquee will be decorated to a Christmas theme and Steve Baker will be arranging an interlude of carol singing, backed up with Christmas images on the big screen, to emphasise that Christmas flavour.
And perhaps he and Melanie will also supervise a singing of “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” as they did to everyone’s amusement and enjoyment at their previous Christmas parties, involving groups on the various tables representing each one of the 12 days, so everyone gets involved.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the evening starts at 7.30pm, with the buffet meal being served from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.
Our chanteuse, Ilze van Zanten, born in Holland but who grew up, as she says, by the Algarvian shores, will provide the entertainment for the hour before the meal then again afterwards when we hope everyone will enjoy themselves by getting up to dance.
There will be a break around 10.30pm so people can just sit and chat, and relax in each other’s company before Ilze returns—and dancing resumes!
Ilze began working as a professional singer in 1999 and has performed in major resorts all over the Algarve, such as The Four Seasons, Tivoli Hotels, Vila Vita, Vila Lara, Martinhal, Holiday Inn and many more.
She explains: “Whether I am at a summer Festival, a party or a wedding I always reach the public by singing a great variety of well known songs suitable for all age groups and “musical tastes” from Classical to Pop, Rock and country.
“I sing mainly in English and Portuguese but I also do some Spanish, Italian and French tunes.”
Her huge and varied repertoire includes the songs of such performers as Abba, Robbie Williams, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Queen, Liza Minnelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline, Queen, Frankie Valli &The Four Seasons, Crystal Gayle, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Gloria Gaynor, John Lennon, Tina Turner, Dean Martin, Status Quo, Tammy Wynette, Adele, Andrea Bocelli, The Righteous Brothers, Elton John, Astrud Gilberto, the Gipsy Kings, Edith Piaf, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and many others.
As we said we booked Ilze on the strength of rave reviews from our own Walking Club.
So, with the combined skills of our chef, our entertainer and our Entertainment Committee…it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
And as Bing Crosby sang:
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
“And soon the bells will start,
“And the thing that will make them ring,
“Is the Carol that you sing,
“Right within your heart”.
So, come and join us. Book your ticket now!
BPI Bank Charity Appeal
You may remember last Christmas the BPI Bank in Aljezur were collecting books as presents for needy children of Aljezur to ensure they had at least one present on Christmas morning.
The success of this being achieved, was mainly down to residents of Vale Da Telha who went into the bank and donated a present or money to buy one.
This year BPI Bank have approached Amovate to ask if we could promote their Charity Appeal again, for this Christmas. The procedure is the same as last year – just pop into the bank and you can choose a child to donate a present to. Fernando and the rest of the staff have all the details and will be there to help.
CLOSING DATE – 16th DECEMBER