20 Years on Arnside

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It was a double celebra�on at the St Peter’s Hospice shop in Southmead on May 13th. Cake and balloons were on hand for all as the store marked its 20th anniversary of trading in Arnside Road and the official opening of the new look Arnside shopping area by the Lord Mayor of Bristol.

Local people, working with the Southmead Development Trust, have helped to design a range of improvements to make Arnside Road a more a�rac�ve, safer and eco-friendly place to visit. The shopping area has been substan�ally updated, including new pavements, kerbs and walkways, new cycle stands and bollards, street plan�ng beds to help natural drainage and increase biodiversity, and new car parking areas on Greystoke Avenue.

The Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Steve Smith said: “It is an honour to officially open the new look Arnside and reveal the extensive public realm works that have been undertaken over the last year.

“The new granite benches feature artwork by Nick Hands and Simon Tozer. They were developed with local people and celebrate everything about the local area, including the famous son of Southmead, David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.

“For me, the nice thing about coming here is mee�ng the people who’ve made this happen, being able to celebrate that and thanking them for all their hard work. I’m delighted to see what’s happened in the local area and to meet the St Peter’s Hospice team celebra�ng their 20th anniversary at the same �me.”

The development will make a big difference to the St Peter’s Hospice shop as improvements to the road allow easy access for drivers to pull up outside the store and donate goods.

Southmead store member, Jeane�e, managed the shop for over ten years and has seen it grow during that �me from a single unit (replacing Terry’s newsagents) into a double unit, expanding into the former fruit and vegetable shop next door.

Jeane�e said: “We’d like to thank the local community who’ve given us so much support and made us part of the Arnside community. We’ve built up a strong team of loyal volunteers who help us in the shop, alongside our staff.

“Our stock turnover is high, and customers are always surprised at how much new stock comes in every day. We always need more goods to sell, and rely on dona�ons from the local community. Ladieswear, homeware and jigsaws are especially popular with customers, and we welcome all dona�ons that are clean and �dy and are of good enough quality to be sold on in the shop.”

Frank Noble, Chief Exec. of St Peter’s Hospice said: “This shop is in the heart of the local community, and we are looking forward to trading here for the next 20 years.”

If you’d like to volunteer for St Peter’s please visit us online at: www.stpetershospice.org or telephone: 0117 915 9400

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Last September I started back at Slimming world for the fourth �me. I hoped I could focus as I had less distrac�ons at home to poten�ally stop me from fully following the plan.

My star�ng weight was 19 stone 6 pounds and in all honesty I wasn’t sure what I wanted as my target. I decided on 6 stone as that would be just above the healthy range on the BMI scale, which I absolutely detest as it doesn’t take into account body frame, but I thought it could be a rough guide.

I signed up for 12 weeks with two two friends who had also been before, so I had some support to help me to stay on the plan.

In my first week I lost 7.5 pounds and got my first award. This was a great start and I knew that it was because before my diet had been pre�y awful. By s�cking to the plan I had made a big first step. I thought my next week might not be as successful, however I lost another 6.5 pounds which also gained me my ‘1 stone’ award in just 14 days!

Over the next 10 weeks the weight loss kept coming, as did the awards, and I managed to get my weight down to 17 stone and 1 pound and was awarded my ‘Club 10’ which meant I’d lost 10% of my body weight.

I achieved all of this despite going to a gin fes�val and celebra�ng my 40th birthday! I had drinks, ate cake and enjoyed the occasional take-away, but I wrote it all down and made sure that the rest of the week I stuck to my plan so these ‘treats’ didn’t stop my weight loss.

As soon as my 12 weeks were up I pre-paid again to help me stay commi�ed. But a�er a few weeks my weight plateaued and I wasn’t seeing the same losses as before. I do have chronic fa�gue syndrome and had been wiped out with Covid, so I’d been having lots of treats just trying to get through being unwell.

I worried my first 3 awards had all gone to waste, but I stuck it out and kept going for another 6 weeks and lost 9 pounds. Normally I would have given up and gone back to ea�ng how I did before, and probably put most of the weight back on, but I really don’t want to see that 3 stone and 6 pounds ever again!

I’ve made a fantas�c start and on the whole it has been reasonably easy as the plan gives you so many op�ons of what you can eat and how you can make it work for you, and it is OK when you don’t have the best week because we are all in it together and everyone in the group has had an off week, but we keep each other mo�vated.

It’s about reminding ourselves how great we are feeling when we lose the weight and for me the difference in mobility and pain issues has been amazing as I really struggle with my joints. On days where my fa�gue was bad before I would literally crawl up the stairs to get to bed, but now I can run up them without feeling like I’m about to pass out, and I’m about to get rid of all of my old clothes as I don’t plan to ever have to buy a size 18 or above again!