Hundreds turn out for community health event

Makini Jones helped provide health checks to participants on Saturday

Hundreds of people attended an event to raise awareness of physical and mental health issues among under-represented groups.

The Community Health Champions Health Expo Day was held at Hexham Road Community Centre in Reading on Saturday.

Studies have found “vast and persistent” inequalities in NHS services in the UK.

Health and liver checks were available for attendees, along with healthy eating and cookery workshops.

Charities, including Autism Berkshire and The Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (ACRE), also attended.

Makini Jones, a nurse working for the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust, helped give health checks to members of the community in partnership with Reading Voluntary Action.

“Without knowing something is wrong, you end up with chronic, long-term conditions that are then harder to treat. [The work] is preventative rather than reactive,” she said.

Errol Masters was left "thrilled" by the turnout

Errol Masters, a member of Reading's Jamaican Society and other groups represented at the weekend, gave a presentation on men’s health.

“I’m absolutely thrilled at the size of the turnout and the variety of organisations who are here. Reading is a small town but it has a really big presence,” he said.

“Hopefully this will be a springboard for other events. The more people that we get to talk to and the more people share, we realise that there are people just like ourselves.”

Michelle Thomas, a post-doctoral research associate for public health at the University of Reading, gave a cooking demonstration.

“It’s incredibly important, with the cost of living crisis, where the price of food has gone up considerably, to have skills in your toolkit, as it were, to make something from very simple ingredients [with] minimal cooking equipment,” Dr Thomas said.