Life after Stroke. Pensioners hall, Ammanford. (Wednesday 10-12noon)

The learners who attend this course all suffer the effects of having stroke.  The aim of these sessions is to introduce learners to a variety of craft skills as part of the rehabilitation process, learners are supported in carrying out new tasks which aim to improve their manual dexterity, while encouraging participants grow in confidence through social interaction and the acquisition of new skills.

The participation in the group is not restricted to learners living in Ammanford, in fact learners travel in from the surrounding towns and villages to participate in the group activities and classes.

Our class has been running since the start of September 2023, and in this time, learners have explored a variety of autumn themed activities. Learners have created plant pots from old tin cans upcycling them with laminated illustrated collars with floral designs. Learners have planted up these pots with a variety of hardy annual seeds and have placed them in their outdoor spaces where already there have been reports of seed germination and seedlings growing in preparation of the forthcoming spring when we will look forward to lots of pretty flowers next year

Learners have upcycled old magazines to create collage pictures of autumnal pumpkins. For this activity learners drew around a pumpkin template to create the pumpkin shape onto A4 paper, which they populated with torn segments from the pages of the magazine and added additional texture using scrunched up tissue paper in complementary colours which they stuck to the A4 page using PVA glue.

Learners also combined the collage technique with the use of leaf shaped templates and incorporated leaf rubbings from native local trees to create a wreath illustration on A3 paper.

Learners have also explored weaving techniques using paper templates and strips of coloured paper.

In October the group decided that they would undertake participation in a craft fair, this event took place on Saturday the 4^th of November in the Miners hall in Upper Brynamman.

The group aim was to run a raffle on this date and collected items to make into hampers.

To support this activity, learners also decided to make a variety of items to sell on the stall, and with the guidance of our tutor, Darina Neeson, they created and developed the products to sell.

The first activity was to make Christmas hanging decorations from air-dried clay. Learners rolled out clay on the tables and used a variety of seasonal cutters to cut shapes from the clay, and to add texture to the smooth clay surface, learners used some embossing tools and left them to dry.  Learners used acrylic paints in to decorate the dried decorations, and also added some spots of glue to the surfaces followed by drizzling fine glitter over them to make them sparkle, before threading cord through the holes to enable them to be hung. These colourful items in which everyone in the group participated in the making, was the highlight of the stall.

Another item that learners developed for selling at the fair was a kit which contained decorated multicoloured card strips, made into paperchain style Christmas decorations. For these, the learners cut A4 card in a variety of colours into 1” strips which they decorated with a variety of die cut paper snowflake shapes.  Each kit contains 14 decorated strips in a variety of colours, each of which has a double-sided sticky pad attached so that they can be connected to each other to make a Christmas decoration of approximately 2 meters in length.

The final item which the group decided to make for the stall was similar to the seed planting activity learned at the beginning of the course, but this time they planted hyacinth bulbs in the tin cans and decorated the laminated sleeves with decoupage flowers to represent the flowers to come.

The Christmas fair activity usually allows the Life After Stroke group to raise funds which are then used throughout the year to provide refreshments for the class participants and to cover other group running expenses.

Many of the group members attended the fair to set up and manage the stall on the day.  They handed out information leaflets about group activities and discussed the benefits of being part of this support network.

Participating in this fair, provided an opportunity for group members to interact with the local community and make people aware of their role in supporting victims of stroke, in the hope that others will join up and enjoy the friendship and empathy of people affected in the same way as them and no longer struggle with the isolating loneliness many victims endure as they struggle to overcome the lifechanging effect of a stroke.

Life After Stroke (Ammanford) is a Stroke Association affiliated group in partnership with Adult Learning Wales that is open to anyone affected by stroke, including stroke survivors, carers, friends and family members. If you would like to find out more, contact Cecilia Forsythe on 07930 248306 or email cecilia.forsythe@adultlearning.wales

If you or someone you know has been affected by stroke and requires further information and support, please contact the Stroke Association by email at helpline@stroke.org.uk or by phone on 0303 3033 100, or visit the Stroke Helpline page.