A Warm Welcome

A very warm welcome to our website from all here at the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing (NFHW). Join us in celebrating 25 years of success.

The National Forum for Health & Wellbeing promotes health and wellbeing within communities. At the heart of our work is a desire to help people to make better informed decisions about their own health and lifestyles. Recognising that prevention is better than cure, we encourage people to take more responsibility for maintaining their own health and fitness – and to take advantage of the many free sources of healthcare support that are available to them.

To achieve our aims, we work with local communities, educational institutions, the NHS, local councils and voluntary organisations. We also hold regular free events including Health Melas (health fairs), health screenings, diagnostic tests (health MOTs) and public engagement seminars. It’s a model that has been applauded by policy-makers at every level, and one that continues to spread.

Today, the NFHW is a well-known charity with a highly experienced team, and links to stakeholder partners across Britain and beyond. We’ve attracted commendations and citations from senior health professionals, educators, government ministers, civil servants and dignitaries at almost every level, and our model for community engagement has been adopted in dozens of towns and cities across the world.

Key Milestones

2001: The Initial Concept

Based at the Gujarat Hindu Society (GHS) Centre in Preston, a team of health professionals and community support specialists proposes the formation of the Lancashire Gujarat Health Users’ Forum. Initially, its purpose will be to engage with local communities of South East Asian heritage to ensure that people from minority groups don’t miss out on access to healthcare services and information. In its first year, the Forum will do this by hosting a series of monthly health workshops at the GHS Centre. However, it already has plans to host a much bigger event in 2002.

2002: The First Health Mela

The following year, we host our first Health Mela at the GHS Centre. This coincides with Preston’s being granted city status to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. The two-day mela features a mix of entertainments, fun activities and free health-checks, and it’s a great success. The Chief Guest is Professor John Ashton, Director of Public Health North West, and visitor attendance far exceeds our expectations.

2005 Expansion to other Cities Begins

In 2005, the Health Mela concept is taken outside of Lancashire for the first time. We host events in both Preston and Manchester, where we work in partnership with medical students from the University of Manchester. Our principal guest, Professor Raman Bedi, Chief Dental Officer, delivers a message of support from Sir Nigel Crisp, Chief Executive of the Department of Health.

Over the next ten years, the model spreads to other towns and cities including:

• Blackpool
• Bolton
• Bradford
• Cardiff
• Carlisle
• Carnforth
• Chorley
• Fleetwood
• Fylde Coast
• Leyland
• London

2012: Name Change

In 2012, in recognition of the group’s continuing expansion and multi-cultural remit, we change our name to the National Forum for Health & Wellbeing. NFHW is granted charitable status in 2014. In the same year, and for the next three, the Health Mela relocates to Preston’s Guild Hall; a substantially larger venue in the city centre.

2013: New Headquarters

In 2013, we establish a permanent office base in Bolton, at the University of Greater Manchester.

2014: First International Collaboration

The following year, we begin our first cross-border support work. We help to plan and co-ordinate a new Health Mela in India, which will operate on a very similar model to our own.

In the same year, we are named the winner of the social impact category in the E3 Enterprise Awards.

2015: Stronger Ties with the University of Lancashire

After three years at the Guild Hall, we again move the Health Mela to a larger venue: the University of Central Lancashire, (later to be known as the University of Lancashire.) This bolsters our relationships with the university’s health facilities and, as an additional benefit, its medical, pharmacy and biomedical students use the event to gain experience in performing health checks in the community.

2018: Further International Melas

In 2018, students from the University of Lancashire help to organise a new Health Mela, this time in Benghazi, Libya. Again, it follows the model we developed, emphasising the value of community engagement and blending health-checks with food, activities and entertainments.

Over the following years, we support other international Mela-style events and related projects. Examples include:

• Collaboration with the Catterick Nepalese Community Project (2019)
• NFHW members present a paper: ‘Empowering Communities – the Health Mela Experience’ at the 14th BIDA International Scientific Congress held in the Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2024)
• Professor Romesh Gupta and Professor Amit Sinha present a paper on ‘Sustainability and the NHS’ at the BIDA international conference in Zanzibar, Tanzania (2024)

2020: COVID and a Move to the Virtual

When the COVID pandemic strikes early in 2020, we are forced to cancel the melas planned for the year. Instead, we adopt a new virtual format, delivering seminars, workshops and conferences online. While this lacks the immediacy of meeting people in community venues, it helps to bring our work to a much wider audience of professionals and the general public, helping to build awareness nationally and internationally.

This work continues in 2021 and 2022, with webinars focusing mainly on COVID-related subjects such as isolation, anxiety, mental health and considerations for pregnant women.

2023: Relaunch of the Health Melas

With the easing of lockdown, we are able to resume our national Health Mela programme, though now it is supplemented with virtual public engagement events that have a proven ability to extend our audience reach.

2024: Work on an NHS Mela Toolkit

In 2024, Professor Romesh Gupta and Professor Rob Campbell collaborate on a new toolkit for the NHS. It is intended to give more people access to appropriate healthcare and resources by drawing upon our experiences of providing community-based information, advice and guidance. It highlights key benefits of the Health Mela model, including:

• Easier, culturally sensitive access to expert advice
• The ability to engage with people in a non-clinical, non-threatening environment
• Effective promotion of lifestyle changes
• Enhancing personal healthcare management
• Providing hands-on experience for students
• Earlier diagnosis of conditions including diabetes, kidney disease, cardio-vascular disease and hypertension, all of which are prevalent in local communities
• Supporting the development of valuable multi-agency partnerships

Further Milestones

Our work continues, of course, so in 2026 and beyond, we will keep building our partnerships and promoting the principles that have made our approach to community engagement so effective.

25^th Anniversary Celebration (2026)

On 7 March 2026, we celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the official formation of the GHS. The event is officially opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Mrs Amanda Parker JP, and supported by a host of local and national professionals and dignitaries. Amongst many others, these include:

• Councillor Sue Whittam, Mayor of Preston,
• Robert Parker JP, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire
• Professor Mumtaz Patel, President Royal College of Physicians, London
• Professor Alison Carr, Dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Lancashire
• Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health Lancashire
• Kevin Walsh BME, MPHF, former Rotary District Governor, Cumbria and Lancashire

Further International Collaboration

In the same year, we sign a memorandum of understanding with Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, at the University of Health Sciences in Rohtak, India, with the intention of extending the Health Mela concept to Delhi.

Linking Health, Community and Education

Over the last 25 years, we’ve been extremely fortunate to have developed working partnerships with a number of British universities. In our early days, the most important of these were the University of Greater Manchester (formerly the University of Bolton), the University of Manchester, the University of Bradford, and the University of Lancashire’s Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. Each of these has supported our work, often by providing venues for our events and, in some cases, encouraging final-year medical students to attend our melas in order to perform valuable health-checks and to offer advice to visitors.

Many of these students have reported gaining invaluable experience from these events, which helped them to gain practical insights into working in the community, providing individuals with advice and, of course, performing the health checks themselves. These included blood tests, blood pressure tests and BMI assessments, amongst others.

Education more generally is, of course, another important aspect of our work. By giving people more access to information about health, fitness and lifestyle, we are taking positive steps towards preventing some potentially very harmful diseases.

The earlier these lessons are learned, the easier it should be for members of the community to live healthier lives for longer. Consequently, our partnerships with educators don’t only extend to universities; we make conscious efforts to work with schools and colleges, a number of which have kindly provided venues for local melas.

Other Partnerships

Collaboration is at the heart of our work. Without it, our reach and resources would be very much more limited. Examples of the partnerships and networks we have formed include:

• NHS Trusts, hospitals & ICSs
• GP and dental practices
• Patient advocacy and liaison groups
• Community groups
• Charities and fundraising groups
• Universities, colleges and schools

We are grateful to all those organisations that have supported us over the years.

Guests and Supporters

Many kind individuals have supported our work and events and, in so doing, they have played an important part in building our credibility and reputation. Some notable guests, speakers and supporters have included:

• Professor John Ashton, Director of Public Health North West
• Raman Bedi, Chief Dental Officer
• Sir Nigel Crisp, Chief Executive, Department of Health
• Anna Walker, Chief Executive of the Health Care Commission
• Paul Buckley, Director of Education and Standards, General Medical Council
• Dame Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty
• Dame Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer for the Department of Health
• Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians of London
• Professor Dame Carrie McQueen, Chairman of the General Medical Council
• Professor Graeme Catto, President of the General Medical Council
• Dr Chris Moulton, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine
• Professor John Middleton, President of the Faculty of Public Health UK
• Prof Amit Sinha, President of the British International Doctors Association

Our Impact (So Far)

Some of our impacts can be measured numerically, but not all. For example, we can say with certainty that since we began, we have:

• Hosted more than 60 Health Melas
• Performed around 5,500 health checks
• Made hundreds of new diagnoses
• Alerted people to previously undiagnosed cases of diabetes, hypertension, glaucoma and other conditions
• Provided information and advice to thousands of visitors in the UK and elsewhere

However, the longer-term impacts of education and associated behavioural changes are harder to quantify. Anecdotal reports suggest that very large numbers of attendees have benefited from visiting the Health Melas, and from taking part in webinars or attending other related events.

A recent survey of Health Mela visitors found that 99.6% had found their local events to be “useful” or “very useful”, and that 98.2% believed that their experiences there had helped them to better understand their health needs. Over 92% of respondents said that the experience would help them to make positive lifestyle changes.

In the long term, these resulting improvements in awareness and lifestyle may well be yielding many additional health benefits. Returning to the principle that ‘prevention is better than cure,’ we can be confident that the Health Mela model has delivered more positive results than numbers alone can ever show.

A Final Word of Thanks

Over the last 25 years, we have gained considerable recognition, and we have been able to reach thousands of people in communities across Britain and beyond. Our activities have undoubtedly been a force for good and, as a result of them, there are people alive today whose health outcomes have been far better than they otherwise might.

We are rightly proud of what we have achieved but I’m very conscious that none of this would have been possible without the kind and generous support of numerous health organisations, charities, businesses, educators, sponsors and volunteers.

To all of you, thank you.