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Wharfedale General Hospital Cardiac Club
Wharfedale General Hospital Cardiac Club
The Heart of Cardiac Fitness since 1991
Registered Charity
1155721
About the Club
History
The Wharfedale General Hospital Cardiac Club was formed in 1991 by Dr. K.E. Birkin, a former consultant at the Wharfedale Hospital, together with a small group of cardiac patients who were keen to continue exercising after completing the Hospital rehab course.
They wanted to continue with their regular exercise routines and were encouraged by hospital staff and offered accommodation in the physiotherapy unit at the Wharfedale Hospital to set up and run their own group.
Initially there was only a handful of active members and by 1994 about a dozen attended the once weekly session. Hospital staff also came along, so there was always at least one staff member present.
The photo below, taken from a press cutting, shows an exercise class during the early days of the Club in the 1990s.
In the years since then, numbers have grown steadily, with patients being referred by local G.P.’s, cardiac consultants and through the Phase 3 cardiac rehabilitation programme.
In due course, professionally qualified exercise instructors were engaged to lead and supervise the exercise sessions.
For many years the Club has been affiliated to the British Heart Foundation and in 2013, it was felt that the Club was large enough to apply for Registered Charity status, which was granted.
Management
The Club is run entirely for the benefit of its members and the day to day management is delegated by the Trustees to a Committee, which is elected annually from the membership. From November 2019 the Committee is:
David Farrow (Trustee, Chair and Secretary)
Ben Jordan (Trustee, Deputy Chair/Deputy Secretary)
Peter Horrocks (Treasurer)
Gerald McGowan (Assistant Treasurer)
Judith Davies (Trustee, Membership Secretary)
John Hammond (Trustee)
John Hammond (Trustee)
Ken G Smith
Sandra Bolton
Nigel Bolton
Tom Rhodes
The Club has a comprehensive set of procedures to ensure smooth running. A redacted version (i.e. with any sensitive information removed) is available to download as a
PDF Manual
.
Charitable Work
Over the years, the Club has made donations to the Wharfedale Hospital. For example, in 2016, the Club donated new, professional standard exercise equipment to the value of almost £6,000 to the Physiotherapy Unit at the hospital (the photo below shows the Chairman, David Farrow, with the Hospital's Head of Nursing, Zoe Kirk on presentation of the new equipment).
