Festival of Trees

As in previous years, DAST will be taking part in the Crooked Spire’s Festival of Trees in Chesterfield.

This year, we asked our supporters to help make our tree really stand out by making decorations. We have been overwhelmed by the response - you really are a crafty lot! Here are just a few of the knitted, crocheted and sewn items that we have received.  Thank you to everyone who sent decorations in to us.

If any of you want to continue making things for DAST, we are always wanting items to sell on our craft stalls at our events.

If you are planning a trip to Chesterfield to see our tree, then we have arranged a small event that you can join. Details are as follows:

Friday 23^rd November 2018

Saints Parish Centre

3 St Mary’s Gate, Chesterfield, S41 7TD

10.30am – 12.00pm

As well as hot drinks and mince pies, we will have a seasonal talk from David Tideswell about “Our Friendly Garden Robin”.

We will then visit the Spire’s Festival of Trees, which is just a short walk away across the churchyard.

If you would like to join us, please book by calling 01246 380415 or emailing joanne.gordon@asbestossupport.co.uk

http://asbestossupport.net/

Sharing the Heritage of Asbestos

DAST still have quite a few of Our Asbestos Heritage booklets to distribute.  These contain information for those interested in collecting vintage items, renovating period properties or working in the heritage/museum sector. The booklets share personal experiences that indicate where asbestos might be found and what kind of items to be careful of. Here’s a couple of examples of the inside pages:

Do you know of anyone who might be able to distribute some of these booklets? An example might be a friend or relative who works in a museum or an antiques shop, who could put a few on the front counter.

In an effort to distribute some of these ourselves, DAST have decided to take a stall on Chesterfield Flea Market. On Thursday November 1^st the market is holding a 1940s themed event, which we think will attract many people who are interested in mid 20^th century items and properties, when use of asbestos was at its peak. We intend to take a stall on that day and to give out the books to those visiting our stall.

But we also need something to sell. We need attractive, second hand items that will being people to our stall and also raise a bit of money to cover the cost of hiring it. We have decided to sell old costume jewellery – and this is where you come in! Do you have any old necklaces, bracelets, brooches or earrings that you can donate to us?

If so, please bring them along to a future meeting or post them to:

Sarah Walters, DAST, 34 Glumangate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 1TX

Anything that doesn’t sell on the market will be put on ebay.

Thanks in advance!

Easy Fundraising with easyfundraising.org.uk

We’ve registered with easyfundraising and we need your help!

easyfundraising is a great website where you can help Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team raise funds simply by doing your everyday online shopping with over 3,300 big name retailers like Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S.

Every time you shop, we receive a small donation to say ‘thank you’ and it’s completely free too! We want raise as much as possible so please sign up and help us at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dast/

Over £20million has already been raised for good causes in the UK by easyfundraising shoppers so please help us get our share.

Action Mesothelioma Day in the East Midlands

The first Friday of July is designated national Action Mesothelioma Day, drawing attention to this rare form of cancer that is only caused by exposure to asbestos fibres. Over 3,000 people die from Mesothelioma each year in the UK, most being exposed in the workplace 30-40 years previously.

Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team (DAST) assisted over 40 families affected by asbestos cancers last year in Derbyshire alone. We also helped many others across the East Midlands. We also work to raise awareness of the continuing danger of asbestos. Although the substance was banned in 1999, the UK imported so much of it in the 20^th century that it is still present in many of our homes and public buildings. Action Mesothelioma Day is a way of encouraging greater awareness of the disease and the continuing risks of asbestos exposure.

DAST will mark Action Mesothelioma Day 2018 by planting a memorial tree at Grassmoor Country Park near Chesterfield. Each branch of the tree will represent a profession or trade that is commonly affected by asbestos exposure – plumbers, electricians and teachers for example.  

We hope that local people who have worked with asbestos in the past will join us as we plant this tree. We will be meeting at Birkin Lane Car Park, Grassmoor, on Friday 6^th July at 10.30am. All are welcome.

The tree planting ceremony will be followed by a buffet lunch at North Wingfield Community Resource Centre. If you would like to join DAST for the event, please book by telephoning 01246 380415 or emailing mail@asbestossupport.co.uk 

To make a donation towards Action Mesothelioma Day, click on this link to be taken to our online donation page at The Big Give:

https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/projects/view/19708

Twitter: @DAST24

Facebook: www.facebook.com/asbestossupportEastMidlands/

Cooking Up Good Health

Thanks to our Co-op Local Community Fund donations, we are now able to produce our own DAST healthy eating cookbook.

This is your chance to get your own recipe into print!

We’re inviting our supporters to send us recipes that they have designed, or that have been passed down through their family. We are collecting recipes that fit into the following categories:

Breakfast – Snack – Light Meal – Dessert – Drinks

If you want to send us a recipe, we need your list of ingredients and the cooking method. Your measurements can be metric OR imperial but please don’t mix the two. We’d also like to know a bit of background information such as how you got the idea, why you enjoy it or any memories associated with it.  A high-resolution digital photo of the dish would be good but this isn’t compulsory. Please remember not to send us any recipes that have previously been published in other books.

Send your recipes by email to sarah.walters@asbestossupport.co.uk

Or by post to DAST, 34 Glumangate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 1TX

When we have enough recipes to fill a book, we will use our Co-op donations to have a glossy cookbook printed, which we will then give out free of charge to anyone accessing DAST’s services. All those submitting recipes will also receive a free copy.

Support us with your Co-op Dividend here

Recognising our Volunteers

Today, 20 April 2017, is Volunteer Recognition Day and so we want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have given their time to Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team over the past year. Some of the things that people have done for us include:

• ·       Befriending someone
• ·       Raising sponsor money
• ·       Distributing leaflets to doctors’ surgeries
• ·       Speaking about DAST at events
• ·       Serving on our committee
• ·       Attending a supporters meeting
• ·       Put us forward to be a supermarket’s chosen charity
• ·       Made something crafty for us to sell

Without this kind of help, we would have considerably fewer resources – both in terms of money to spend on services and the services themselves. Sometimes, only a person that has been directly affected by Mesothelioma can do the job needed. To all of you…

Thank You!

If you want to join our bereavement befrienders or become a DAST Community Champion – tell us and we will give you as much support as we can. You decide what you want to do and how often you want to do it. Drop Sarah an email on sarah.walters@asbestossupport.co.uk

And we’ll give you a call.

Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/asbestossupportEastMidlands/

Poetry Please

Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team have launched their first ever poetry competition.

We are encouraging people to write a poem about asbestos – sharing how they feel about it, and how it has affected their life. Their work can take any format and it doesn’t have to rhyme.

As well as providing people with an opportunity to vent their feelings on paper, we aim to use the competition to raise money towards our Action Mesothelioma Day event. Each entry must be accompanied by an entry form and a donation of £3.

The winning entry will be read out at the AMD event, which will take place at The Roundhouse, Derby on July 7^th.  The author will also be awarded a £10 book token.

So, what are you waiting for?

Grab a pen and notepad

We’re sure you won’t be a bore

Your efforts will make us glad!

If you would like an entry form and set of rules, contact Sarah on sarah.walters@asbestossupport.co.uk

Closing date is 24th April 2017.

If you would like to make an online donation towards Action Mesothelioma Day, click here

You Can Bank on DAST

It’s been such a busy year at DAST. We’ve launched the Asbestos in Schools Awareness project and run the Asbestos Heritage research project. The bereavement support services entered its second year and we held a Reflection and Remembrance event at Lincoln Cathedral. We ran an Action Mesothelioma Day event and hosted this year’s Mesothelioma in the Midlands conference.

All this happened while we continued to provide our ongoing regular services including making home visits, holding coffee mornings and delivering information directly to those affected by asbestos disease.

The cost of some of this work has been covered by grants and donations from charitable bodies and trade unions. We are very grateful for this support, but the tendency is for them to select a specific project to fund.  Finding a grant or large donation to cover your day-to-day work is rare. Few charitable bodies want to fund our core work – the home visits or the maintenance of our website, for example.  The telephone bill is a major expense for DAST. Our staff spend hours of each working day on the telephone; providing reassurance and guidance, chasing up claims or planning events. According to our most recent accounts, DAST spent over £9000 on telephone, internet and postage in the last financial year.

DAST's most recent coffee morning in Stamford

This is why we need general, unrestricted funding. Our panel of solicitors help us to meet the cost of a large chunk of our overheads – the salaries, the rent and the travel expenses. But the rest? That all comes from our supporters.

Your donations really make a difference to the level of service that we can provide. Without them, there would be fewer coffee mornings where Mesothelioma sufferers find information and support. There would be fewer, less informative, information booklets. There would be no newsletter to keep families in touch with developments or ways to campaign on issues affecting their loved ones.

If you haven’t already done so, please consider signing up to a regular donation through standing order.

·        £5 per month would cover the cost of room hire for a coffee morning each year.

·        £10 per month would cover the cost of printing and mailing a newsletter to 100 families each year.

And knowing that this money is coming in regularly helps in planning our future activities.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to DAST this year. You have helped us to make a difference to many people. if you would like a standing order form, please follow the link below and click on 'Donation Leaflet pdf':

http://asbestossupport.net/support-us/fundraising/

Donate to DAST Without Giving Money!

 Here at DAST we collect several used items which we can magically turn into money to help pay for our services!

·        Old and foreign money. This is the new addition to our recycling programme.  Please consider having a collection of all that spare change that you and your friends might bring back from your holidays abroad.

·        Postage stamps. If you can, please cut these out leaving a border of 0.5cm – 1cm. Do you know a workplace office that can save stamps for us?

·        HP ink cartridges

·        Mobile phones

·        Any unwanted gift that would look good on our raffle table, or that we can sell on ebay.

·        Handmade items for our craft stalls

If you are coming to one of our future events, then it is easiest to bring your donations along then. Or if you are in the Chesterfield area, then you are welcome to pop onto the office on Glumangate.

Otherwise, we can accept most things through the post – except mobile phones. Royal Mail are no longer allowing these into their system so these do need to be handed in in person.

Please think about DAST before throwing any of these things out!

Visit the fundraising page on our website here

Your Legacy, DAST’s Future

It is both sad and heartlifting when DAST are sent notification of a legacy. We recently learned that we had been left 10% of the estate of Mr H, and a fixed sum from Mr P. Of course we were sad to hear of their passing. Because we visit people that we help in their homes; and meet them at our events, it is a sombre moment to discover that someone’s own personal battle with asbestos is over.

But this is tempered with the knowledge that they have entrusted DAST with part of their estate. It is an honour to find that a person really believed in the work that we do, and knew that by supporting us, we will give real help to others – and keep on pushing for greater awareness of asbestos and Mesothelioma. It is a ray of sunshine hitting the office.

These two legacies come at a time when we are seeking donations towards several events. There is Mesothelioma in the Midlands and the DAST conference. But we are also planning an event in Lincoln this November, where we will project the names of those affected by Mesothelioma, as we did in Derby some years back. We are also looking into an official launch of the asbestos in schools project.

We are proposing to use Mr H and Mr P’s legacies towards our Lincoln event. It feels appropriate to put the money to use within their home county, where we will be warning others of the deadly effects of asbestos exposure.

As a small, tightly run charity, we can ensure that any legacy is spent in this way and doesn’t just disappear into general running costs.

If you would like to know more, we have legacy information sheets.  You can download these from our website – or we can post/email them out on request.

The Derby Cathedral Projection

Click here to visit our website and download legacy information

Walk a Mile With Your Mates

Our Walk a Mile for Mesothelioma event is fast becoming an established part of the DAST calendar. We chose to launch it in 2014 for the following reasons:

·        To get people talking about Mesothelioma by organising small local events and telling others why they are doing it

·        To encourage those suffering from Mesothelioma to do some gentle exercise – this is encouraged by medical professionals in order to try and combat stress and fatigue

·        To increase awareness of DAST and the need for our work – as well as to raise funds to enable us to deliver our service

DAST workers and volunteers will again be walking their mile at Nottingham’s Forest Recreation Ground. Anyone is welcome to come along and join us. It has been wonderful over the past two years to see families and pets and to have a chat while we circuit the park.

Gorgeous Dandelion joined us last year

We will be there on Friday 9^th September from 11.00am. We will travel by train and tram (there is a tramstop right outside the park) but there is also a large car park.

If you are unable to join us we would love it if you could organise your own walk in September.  We have a sponsor pack available containing sponsor forms, pens, a T shirt and guidelines for contacting your local press.

We would welcome walks organised by small/local businesses. Perhaps a sponsored walk could be arranged at lunchtime or after work (a short hike to the pub, maybe…) In return for your company’s support we can put the name on our website list of organisation/company supporters and show your photos on all our social media sites and publications. Check out the current list here:

http://asbestossupport.net/our-supporters/

Show your support for asbestos support!

Lincolnshire Needs You!

A few years back, DAST projected the names of people that had been lost to Mesothelioma onto the tower of Derby Cathedral. This event drew attention to the issue of asbestos diseases and put the word ‘Mesothelioma’ into the local media. The photographs taken on the night have become iconic to the work of DAST – an image both arresting and poignant.

Since that event, time has progressed and unfortunately a lot more East Midlands residents have been diagnosed with Mesothelioma. We thought that it was time to stage another event of this type, especially since it would complement our new Bereavement Support project. The projection of names allows loved ones to share their loss and to gather with others who have been affected in the same way.

When it came to choosing a location, Lincolnshire immediately sprung to mind.  At the time of planning, this was a particularly busy county. DAST was being referred a third more asbestos disease cases from here than from the second busiest county of Derbyshire. We felt that these statistics signalled a need for an awareness drive in this area, encouraging local people to be aware of the issues being faced by so many people.

So, on 9^th November 2016, DAST will be holding an event in Lincoln City Centre. We will be in the grounds of Lincoln Cathedral – the highest point for miles around – and we will be projecting names onto one of the buildings. We will also have speakers and we will be displaying information about the dangers of asbestos.

We will invite the local press as well as trade union and local council representatives to help filter the message out into the local community. This will be one of the stand-out events of our busy year.

But this is going to cost us quite a lot of money. We need to purchase the technical expertise to set up the projection programme and to deliver this on the night. We also need to invest in getting the event noticed by purchasing advertisements and printing leaflets.

At the moment we have yet to receive any pledges of support specifically towards this project – so this is where you can help!

We need sponsors.  Because of the nature of our core funding and the trade union-based ethos of our charity we have to be careful about who we accept sponsor money from. For example, we cannot accept donations from solicitors who are not on our panel, or from asbestos removal companies who are not properly registered and qualified. But we are interested in hearing from any Lincolnshire based trade union or business that would fit well with our work. It might even be a workplace where a colleague has been affected by asbestos exposure from their work in the past.

In return for this support, we can offer a mention in the event literature and in our newsletter and annual report. We will also acknowledge donations on our social media accounts.

Ideally, we need to raise around £4,000 for this event. Any shortfall will be made up from our general fund so the event will still go ahead. However our general fund also needs to pay for the home visits and other methods of directly supporting those affected by asbestos and Mesothelioma.

Do you know someone who can help?  Can you make a contribution to this event?  Please let us know:

mail@asbestossupport.co.uk

Twitter @DAST24

Asbestos in Schools Update

Our Asbestos in Schools project is taking shape and will be ready within the next few weeks. Funding has now been secured from the trade unions Unite, UCATT and ATL, along with donations from the Cowley Family and Linda Reinstein’s Asbestos Disease Awareness Organisation.

As with the Asbestos in the Home project, the focus will be on an interactive computer programme.  This will give a virtual guided tour around typical school buildings, highlighting the areas where asbestos might be found. This programme can be shown on a large screen at events – but most importantly it will be saved onto usb sticks and distributed to schools and teachers. The programme can then be used in staff rooms during training sessions, or viewed by teachers individually.

There will also be an accompanying booklet and a launch event to be held during the school holidays.  We really hope that through this work, we can save lives.  There are currently over 400 schools in the county of Derbyshire alone which still contain asbestos and the workforce urgently need to be informed on how best to protect themselves and their pupils.

The programme is being given the finishing touches by Derby Quad – here’s a taster:

 If you know of anyone who works in a school, and who might like to get involved in raising awareness of the project, please ask them to contact us on mail@asbestossupport.co.uk

You can also make an online donation by visiting our page on https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/projects/view/22886/asbestos-in-schools-awareness-project-(asap)

Welcome to 2016!

DAST are starting the New Year with two new projects.

Firstly, we must thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant of £3,800.  This is for a one year project that we will be working on throughout this year.  Called ‘Our Asbestos Heritage’, we will be collecting memories, observations and photographs from people who worked with asbestos from the 1940s to the 1990s.  We will use this information to make a catalogue of trades, types of workplaces and household objects which involved asbestos. We will prepare a leaflet and a display and share our findings using a website and social media. The overall aims include to record this part of our industrial history, and inform those who work with historic buildings and artefacts so that they can be vigilant. Leaflets will be sent out to museums and magazines specialising in vintage homewares.

You can contribute!

·        Did you work with asbestos?

If so, please complete one of our questionnaires – ask Sarah for a copy.  We can help you to fill it in if required.

·        Do you hold any photographs of someone at work with asbestos or in an environment where it was heavily used?

If so, please email a copy or allow us to borrow it so that we can scan a copy.

·        Do you have any photographs of objects that contained asbestos?

Please share them with the project.

·        We will shortly be launching a new Twitter account and Facebook page devoted to this project.

Please follow us and contribute your thoughts – look out for the links on our existing social media pages.

Secondly, January is Artisans For Asbestos month.

We are asking our supporters to while away the dark, long evenings by crafting something for DAST to sell.  You could knit, sew, crochet or anything you fancy.  Please make objects that people would be interested in buying from us, either at our events or from an online shop. Some ideas include:

·        Hats/scarves/gloves

·        Brooches/corsages

·        Toys

·        Cushion covers

·        Cards/gift tags

·        Bags/purses

·        Artwork

Have a go!  Share your works in progress on our Facebook page. 

If you’re not crafty yourself, why not ask a friend to relative to make something on your behalf?

 You can make a donation to DAST by clicking here

Get Crafty For DAST

The craftivism movement seeks to spread important messages through the use of handicrafts and visual arts. Throughout the world, people are getting together to knit, sew and crochet their beliefs into something tangible that can be shared with others.

Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team are always seeking new ways to get the message across about asbestos and the damage that this still ubiquitous substance does to peoples’ lives. As we read about craftivism, it was immediately obvious that we could use this as a tool to share the stories of those that have unfortunately had to make use of our services.

Luckily, we have someone who is keen on sewing on the team!  Sarah spends her evenings hand stitching all kinds of little pieces for her home and her online sewing shop.  And she is happy to turn her hobby into something that might help raise awareness and give an outlet for people to share their feelings.

DAST’s craftivism project will be a patchwork of memories and messages.  Sarah is preparing some white fabric hexagons, which can be decorated.  These will then be sewn together to form an ever-increasing patchwork.  This will then be displayed at our events, and inbetween times hung on our office wall to inspire us!

William Bear with scissors at the ready

We want you all to get involved, but we realise that not everyone likes or is good at craftwork.  So, there are three ways for you to take part in the project:

1.   For those of you that would like to have a hexagon, but are not into craft, you can buy a hexagon for £5.  Sarah will then sew on a small fabric Reflection Rose and a set of initials.  Please be aware that if a lot of people want this then there might be a waiting list.

2.   For £2.50 you can buy a hexagon and decorate it yourself.  You can put whatever you want on there, and use whatever materials you like – cotton, fabric pens, sequins – whatever suits. Just take care to decorate it with a point to the top so that it will join to the other hexagons. Send it back to us when you are ready and it will be attached to the other hexagons in the patchwork.

3.   For those keen stitchers among you that would like to help, then Sarah would appreciate support in joining the hexagons together (or sewing on roses and initials if a waiting list develops).  If you don’t live near the office, then we can mail the work out to you. 

We will be officially launching this project at our conference in November – if you are coming along to see us in Derby, then come over to the fundraising stall for a chat about the project. However, it would be good to start the project with a couple of completed hexagons so that people can see what it will look like.  So if you want to be one of our craftivism pioneers, then send a cheque to the usual address for your hexagon.

Our New Projects

It’s been a while since we’ve blogged, so there are a couple of things to catch up on.

Firstly, our Lottery funded bereavement project is now underway.  We have recruited Jo Reeve to run the three year project.  Jo is currently busy planning the recording and monitoring processes. The Big Lottery Fund people are very stringent on how we report progress of the work and those taking part in it, so it is vital that this is planned meticulously. If we don’t give them the right information in our bi-annual reports, they will stop paying us! But Jo has also found time to make contact with people who are interested in being part of the project, and has already proved that she has a wonderful capacity to listen and guide.  Keep watching Facebook and Twitter for news of events.  We will be talking to people directly about the direction that the project will take at our conference in November – ahead of a major launch early in 2016.

For some time now, we have wanted to do something to raise awareness of the issue of asbestos in schools.  Our Asbestos in the Home project was so well received, we wondered if we could use this as a template for a school building project. Joanne researched the possibilities and found that we could do something similar.  This interactive tour would take you through two different types of school building – the system built school of the mid 20^th century; and the Victorian school with 20^th century alterations.  The tour could be saved onto usb stick and sent out to headteachers.   Sarah prepared a written funding proposal, and sent this out to the trade unions that represent people who work in schools. She also approached some other funders. We are still waiting for some responses, and we will also experiment with CrowdFunding later in the year.  However we can now report that thanks to support from three trade unions, there is enough in the pot to start work on producing the computer programmes and accompanying leaflets. The major supporter so far is Unite East Midlands – they have now made this project happen with their contribution of over £5,000.  The teaching union ATL and UCATT have also donated. When the computer programme is ready, we will be buying in a load of usb sticks so that anyone will be able to have a look – but we really hope that we can get this used in every staff room in the East Midlands. As usual, we will update you when we have news.

You can make an online donation to the school project by clicking here. Thank you.

We're in the Money!

At last! After a great deal of work, DAST have finally secured a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.  The people running the Lottery Fund are very careful about who they give their grants to, and they want to make sure that the money is well spent. Sarah’s work to prove that the project is needed has been going on for over 18 months.  Some of you may remember taking part in a survey about bereavement support back in 2013 – that was to help with this bid! Two Outline Proposals were rejected before we got through to the final stage of bidding.  Your support kept us going through this frustrating process – thank you all.

So, now we have got the grant – what are we going to do with it?  The £110,215 has all been earmarked to provide support to people who have been bereaved by asbestos. We will begin by recruiting a new worker to the team, and they will stay with us for three years to set up and launch the new support processes that will be put into place.  These will include:

·        A triage service when a bereavement is first reported.  The worker will compile a database of local sources of counselling and pass details on if required.  If a visit is needed to sort out benefit payments, or if the bereaved needs someone to accompany them to the inquest, then they will provide this service. They can also act as a listening ear if someone just needs to talk about their immediate concerns to a person outside of their family.

·        A befriending service.  We will be looking for volunteers who have experienced asbestos bereavement in the past to take part in this service.  This will probably involve a set number of telephone conversations at pre-arranged times, to help the newly bereaved to begin to work through their feelings.

·        A Friends and Relatives Forum.  This will enable friends and relatives of those affected by asbestos to get together and discuss issues important to them.  It will give people an opportunity to get involved in campaigning, and in steering the work of DAST in the future.  This will be a way for those who have been bereaved for a longer period of time to work for change and make a difference.

We will begin advertising for a worker very soon and we hope that the project will be able to properly launch in the summer.  Meanwhile, we will talking about the project at our event in Lincoln next month (see our previous post Caring for the Carers).

Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for more information about the project as it progresses.

Be There!

Plans are now well under way for our Asbestos in the Home Derbyshire event.  This will be held at the Winding Wheel, Chesterfield on Wednesday 25th February.  There will be a launch at 2.00pm and another at 6.45pm.  Refreshments will be available from 1.15pm and 6.00pm respectively.  We have had several grants and donations towards this event from our usual supporters - such as trade unions and solicitors.  A full list of donors will be available at the event.  Thanks to everyone who has so far contributed - and if anyone else is interested in sponsoring the event please do get in touch with us (mail@asbestossupport.co.uk)

All this work will be in vain though, if we do not get a good attendance on the day.  Do you know anyone who works in home improvements or DIY?  Do you know any plumbers, electricians or joiners? All those who work in schools should also be asbestos aware.  Tell anyone who might benefit to come along, have a cuppa with us and find out how to protect their health at work.  Do you know anyone who works for a Derbyshire housing association? Please help us to get the message about this event to their workers. Let's get Derbyshire talking asbestos!

Getting the Message Across

Our Asbestos in the Home project was launched in Leicester last year, and has been on show just a few times since – at Nottingham City Homes events and at our own conference in Derby, for example.  We need to keep on pushing the project – and in order to get the message into the public consciousness we are going to have a re-launch in Chesterfield, early next year.  This is going to cost a lot of money if we are to do it properly.  Here’s a copy of a letter that we have just sent out to trade unions in the region:

Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team (DAST) was originally established to support anyone that had been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease.  As the organisation tackled a growing number of people who were suffering from the terminal diseases of Mesothelioma and Lung Cancer, it became clear that we needed to build awareness of the dangers of asbestos too.  As was initially expected, many of those affected by asbestos had come into contact with the substance in an industrial setting – in power stations, coal mines, railway workshops and steelworks.  But just as many workers had inhaled those deadly particles in a domestic setting. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - 8 joiners, 6 electricians and 4 plumbers die every week due to asbestos exposure.   This is because the majority of houses that were constructed before 1999 contain asbestos.  90% of all public sector housing is thought to contain the substance.

In the average 20^th century home, asbestos will be found around water tanks, fuse boxes, guttering, flooring and insulation among many other locations.  It remains safe as long as it is undisturbed – it is the particles that are released on movement which are dangerous.  Many professionals are now aware of the dangers and most larger employers will ensure that employees are trained to protect themselves. But we are concerned about smaller companies and the self employed.  HSE research showed that many workers thought that because asbestos is now banned, it no longer posed a danger. The growth in DIY – and the recession forcing people to try and improve their homes rather than move – also puts householders at risk.

DAST saw this need to make people aware of domestic asbestos, and we launched our Asbestos in the Home project as a result. The project consists of model houses which, with the aid of a computer programme and projector, demonstrate where asbestos could be lurking in each part of an average house.  The initial launch took place in Leicester.  The displays have also been on show in the Nottingham area, thanks to the support of union stewards at Nottingham City Homes.  But we need to keep on using the displays if we are to get the message out into the wider community.

We are therefore planning to launch it for a second time – on this occasion we will be targeting Chesterfield and northern Derbyshire.  We wish to hire rooms at the Winding Wheel for one day, and invite the general public as well as local trade union representatives and members of local government.   We will need to publicise this in the local press as well as pay for technical support and refreshments.  It is therefore an expensive activity and we are seeking grants and sponsors for this event, which we are scheduling for early spring 2015.

I would like to ask if the xxx can consider sponsoring this event.  A donation of £100 would be very welcome and we would ensure that your logo appeared in the programme and a projection screen. I would also like to ask if this letter could be distributed to Derbyshire branches. This is primarily as part of the awareness drive – but any donation that they could also consider making towards the Chesterfield launch would be very welcome.

I hope that you can help us to keep workers and DIY enthusiasts safe in the home.

Do you know of anyone who might want to be a sponsor?    Have you got any more ideas on how we can get this project equipment on show in new places?

Please tell us!