Local News Thursday 3rd August

Thursday, 3 August 2023 06:00

By Steve Haigh

Current and former smokers in Somerset are being offered free NHS lung checks. The death has been announced of a former long-serving Somerset councillor, Derek Yeomans. £800 has been donated to St Margaret’s Hospice by Chard United Football Club in memory of a former player. Yeovil Freewheelers blood bikes are holding a charity bike ride this weekend ...and more

Current and former smokers in Somerset are being given lung checks as part of the NHS's Targeted Lung Health Check Programme. More than three thousand-seven-hundred people used the service in the last twelve months, from which seventeen lung cancers were detected, mainly at an early stage. The programme is on offer to current and former smokers aged fifty-five to seventy-four.

The death has been announced of former long-serving Somerset councillor, Derek Yeomans. Mr Yeomans served as a member of the former South Somerset District Council and Somerset County Council representing Langport and Curry Rival for more than twenty years and was also a long-serving member of Curry Rivel Parish Council, where he lived.

A Yeovil farmer has come to the aid of a Berkshire family who had appealed for standing corn to display at their mother's funeral. She was evacuated to Long Load during the Second World War and fell in love with Somerset after living in the County for five years. Local farmer, Chris Baker, heard the appeal and says he’ll be sending standing corn grown in Yeovil to the family to include in the floral tributes at their mother’s funeral.

Yeovil Freewheelers blood bikes are holding a charity bike ride this weekend. The Freewheelers, who are based at Yeovil Hospital, transport medical items between hospitals in the South West for the NHS as a free service and need to raise around ninety thousand pounds every year to fund their activities. On Saturday they’ll be joined by around one hundred other bikers on a journey starting at Cartgate in Yeovil, travelling through Axminster, Lyme Regis, Weymouth and Dorchester before finishing in West Camel, collecting donations on the way.

£800 has been donated to St Margaret’s Hospice by Chard United Football Club. The money was raised in memory of former Chard player Alex Ives who died last year aged thirty-two and was provided with end-of-life care by St Margaret’s.

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