While we admire and support the Christmas campaigns that we see pop up in December, we also know that help is urgently needed all year round, each and every year. As some people pack away after the festive break, we are still here.
Our support is not limited to a food package, but it leaps beyond - we form connections, we listen and respond to everyone who steps through our doors. We open up a warm, safe, environment which aims to feel like a home away from home.
For us to continue to thrive and grow, and keep supporting as many people as possible, we are asking you to become a Friend of Cooking Champions. Even a donation of just £5-10 per month can make a HUGE impact on the lives of those who come through our doors.
Pop to our People's Fundraising page to donate, and we promise to keep you updated with how your support is making a difference. Thank you, we appreciate you! Team Cooking Champions
University College London's School of Behavioural Science and Health is carrying out a survey-based study into the psychological and social effects of Covid-19. People in the UK aged 18 and over are invited to take part. This study will involve answering a 15-minute survey and then answering a shorter 10-minute follow-up survey once a week whilst social isolation measures are in place.
The country's most important medical colleges and charities working in the health field have joined forces to urge people - and especially those in the most at-risk groups - to start using the Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app to provide researchers with vitally important data which will be used to fight the coronavirus. The over-70s and those who have pre existing health conditions appear to be most at risk from the effects of COVID-19, yet they are significantly under-represented in the group of people currently providing data through the app. However, early analysis shows that the illness may start with different symptoms in these groups, such as diarrhoea and confusion, rather than the classic cough and fever.
More than two and a half million users of the Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app are participating in the world's largest citizen science programme and helping researchers discover more about the virus, how it spreads, how to treat it and how to eliminate it. What they have discovered so far shows that the lockdowns in the UK has been effective in reducing the number of people who have symptomatic Covid-19. At its peak on 2nd April, epidemiologists working alongside machine learning scientists predicted that over two million people aged between 20 and 69 fell into this category, but since then the incidence has been falling steadily, down to around 460,000.
The UK government's approach to the coronavirus outbreak raises some important questions. As well as the many issues mentioned in a video by Dr Tony O'Sullivan, we have to ask ourselves why the government's criteria for easing the current restrictions differ so much from those specified by the World Health Organisation.
To help ease the burden on hospital staff, the North Middlesex is asking the public to donate food, equipment, items from their Amazon wishlist, money - via their JustGiving page, or to sew uniform wash bags for hospital staff.
From midday on Tuesday 14 April the children and young people's emergency department at Barnet Hospital will be temporarily diverted to other hospitals.
The stringent rules about visiting patients at the North Middlesex Hospital, especially those with COVID-19 (coronavirus) and patients awaiting test results for COVID-19, are particularly upsetting for families, so the hospital is appealing people with spare tablet computers or smartphones to donate them in order to facilitate 'virtual visits'.
On Tuesday 24th March the North Middlesex Hospital brought in further restrictions on visits to inpatient wards. For details, and to find out about visiting other local hospitals, visit https://healthwatchenfield.co.uk/information-about-coronavirus/local-hospitals/.