More health support for fishing community

Fishermen were given free dental checks as part of the pop-up services

More dental and health support has been offered to fishing communities in the Channel Islands.

The Fishermen’s Mission helped to provide free dental checks and treatment, blood pressure checks and offered advice on accessing health and wellbeing services.

The service is run by SeaFIT, which is a joint initiative by the Fishermen's Mission and the Seafarers Hospital Society.

It is the second time the service has visited Guernsey and Jersey to carry out this work and several fishermen said it was "wonderful" and "brilliant" for the pop-up health checks to return.

Fisherman Chris Casey praised the service

Jersey fishermen Chris Casey had his cholesterol levels checked as part of his visit to the service.

He said it was "almost impossible" for people in his industry to book health appointments because it had to be done "weeks and weeks ahead" which was not practical for the fishing community as they would not know if they had to be out at sea at that time.

"This is the first time I've been because last year the weather was half decent so I was out fishing so them having that regular and annual visits makes a big difference," Mr Cassey added.

The sessions were held in St Peter Port Guernsey on Tuesday and in St Helier in Jersey on Thursday and Friday.

Carol Elliott from SeaFIT wants more people in the fishing community to know about the service

Carol Elliott, from SeaFIT, has helped organise the visits and wants them to continue.

She said "we would love to be here again" and "we are hoping that we can bring more services to Guernsey" but "it all depends on funding".

Ms Elliott added: "Very often the fishermen will say to us they have not seen a dentist in years so just for us to be down here makes all the difference."