It’s a story you might hear often; one of an older person suffering a fall.

The consequences, particularly in later life, can be physically and emotionally devastating, potentially resulting in loss of mobility, independence and confidence.

Falls and fall-related injuries are a common and serious problem.

People aged 65 and over have the highest risk of falling, with 30 per cent of those over 65 and 50 per cent of those over 80 falling at least once a year.

Patients describe falls as frightening and worry that they may fall again.

This often stops people from carrying out their usual activities, leaving them with less independence and withdrawal from social activities.

Many patients who are admitted to the Welland Ward in Johnson Community Hospital have experienced at least one fall in the last year.

While patients are in our care, we try to provide as much support and reassurance as possible, from trying to identify why the fall happened and looking at how we can prevent it from happening again.

This might include reviewing medication, environmental assessments and advice looking at where the patient lives, such as taking up rugs and ensuring that rooms are clutter free and well lit, mobility assessments, and whether that person could benefit from some equipment to help them around their home.

We also encourage patients, carers and relatives to think about what they can do to help keep someone at risk of a fall safe.

Are you managing to stay reasonably fit and healthy through regular physical activity and eating healthily? Don’t be scared to ask for advice from a health professional if you need some guidance.

Make sure you have regular eyesight checks so poor vision does not impair you in any way.

Is there a loose mat or floor covering you’ve been meaning to have repaired for a while?

Take this opportunity to get the job done so it’s no longer a trip hazard.

Also think about removing or securing flexes or wires which trail across the floor.

Keep frequently used household items in easy reach. Don’t struggle, stretch or try to stand on unstable objects to get to them.

Take care of your feet and give them a bit of TLC, and wear well-fitting shoes and slippers.

Outside, look at paths and walkways and keep them clear.

Be a good neighbour if you can help, especially as the weather deteriorates throughout winter.

BY SIMON TEMPLE

Lincolnshire Community Health Services’ Head of Clinical Services for South East Lincolnshire

Long Sutton will come together for its festive highlight of the year on Saturday when the town throws open its arms to everyone to enjoy Christmas stalls, seasonal music and Santa giving free gifts to children in his grotto.

The hugely popular Christmas Festival is being held in the Market Place once again, with a whole host of attractions for all the family.

The town has embraced a white Christmas theme adopted by organisers Events and Entertainment in Long Sutton (EELS) this year, with sparkly window displays and decorations providing the perfect wintry backdrop to the event.

Stalls open for business from 9am, but the festivities get into full swing when a parade led by Santa in his sleigh sets off from the Baptist Church in West Street at 11am.

It will make its way round the houses via Dick Turpin Way before arriving at the grotto for the official start of the festival in the Market Place at noon.

Thanks to the local community supporting EELS’ fundraising efforts, children from Long Sutton and beyond are all able to enjoy a free present from Santa.

Individuals, siblings and families can also have their photo taken with Santa at a cost of £5 per photo, regardless of how many people are in it.

Children are asked to collect a coloured card and wait for the colour to be announced before joining the grotto queue, to reduce waiting times.

There will also be fairground rides, music on stage including from the church choir and Christmas Presence – a band formed especially for the event – and a wide variety of stalls providing ample opportunity to buy last-minute gifts.

EELS chairman Jack Tyrrell said: “There will be crafts, cakes, jewellery, different foods and much, much more.

“We tried to make sure there wouldn’t be more than two of any stall to give people lots of different things to see.”

The best-dressed window competition will be judged on the day by town crier Charlie Moore and Ivan Thompson.

The festival will run until about 5pm, with the road closed between the old A17 and the war memorial off London Road from 6am to 7pm.

Whether you’re in need of a last minute gift, or some time out to relax and unwind as Christmas approaches, a Long Sutton salon offers the perfect solution.

With less than two weeks to go until the big day, Time Out will help you get those presents ticked off and ready for the party season in no time at all.

Helping make the festive season a little less stressful are owners Shaun and Jenny Cross, who have run the High Street business for more than eight years.

The ground floor of the fine period building is the gift and interiors showroom, where you’ll find lots of practical and unique gift ideas for all the family.

Upstairs is Time Out’s hair and beauty salon, where a team of hairdressers and beauticians share their years of experience to make clients look and feel great.

The girls can advise customers on all their hair and beauty needs, from hair colours and extensions to facials, waxing, tanning and nails.

The salon uses top-quality brands including Wella, St Tropez, Cinderella hair extensions, Guinot, Gellac, and Dermalogica.

And if a pampering treat sounds like heaven, why not treat a loved one to the ultimate luxury gift with a Time Out gift voucher?

The gift vouchers can be used for any treatment in the salon, and also against any of the goods for sale in the downstairs showroom.

Special photos or pictures can also be turned into heartfelt presents thanks to Time Out’s picture framing service.

Shaun, Jenny and the team thanked their customers for their continued support throughout 2013, and wish them a very merry Christmas and happy new year.

A hospital doctor who treated an injured builder may have been the person who tipped off police that he had been drinking and was driving home.

Police were waiting for Dean Parker (53), who had been drinking whisky to dull the pain of a broken finger, when he arrived home in the early hours of November 26.

Prosecutor Paul Wood told Spalding magistrates police received information at 2am that day from someone who said Parker would be driving home from Grantham to Stainfield Road, Hanthorpe.

When Parker arrived home in his Landrover, police asked him to give a roadside breath test, which he failed.

An evidential test at the police station revealed 51 microgrammes of alcohol in breath – the legal limit is 35mcgs.

Solicitor Roger Lowther, mitigating, said the self-employed builder had an accident at work, breaking his finger, and went to hospital for treatment.

He had a bottle of whisky which he had bought for somebody else but, because of the pain he was in, he had a drink from the bottle while at the hospital.

Mr Lowther said: “It is believed the doctor who was treating Mr Parker had alerted the police.”

He said Parker drove home along country lanes and had another drink from the bottle because of the pain.

“Mr Parker is very embarrassed and ashamed about what he has done,” said Mr Lowther. “Such was the pain, he would have drunk anything to get rid of it.”

Parker, who appeared in court with his finger still strapped up, was banned from driving for a year, fined £400 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £40 victim surcharge.

Magistrates will allow him to cut three months off the ban if he completes a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

He pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

Families across East Anglia will watch more than five additional hours of television over Christmas, according to figures released by TV Licensing.

With TV taking centre stage among the tinsel and turkey in homes across UK, TV Licensing are reminding people of the importance of making sure they can legally watch the festive favourites.

Over Christmas 2012 residents of East Anglia viewed, on average, 33 hours and 35 minutes of TV – more than five extra hours compared to the national figure of 28 hours for the rest of the year.

Christmas is traditionally the time of special edition episodes of our favourite shows and when soap and drama storylines reach their climatic peak. EastEnders famously attracted 30.1m viewers for the 1986 Christmas Day episode, which featured the spectacular break-up of Angie and Den. The 2001 Christmas Day edition of Only Fools and Horses was watched by an audience of 21.35m, making it the most viewed programme of the decade. In 2012 EastEnders again topped the ratings with 9.7m viewers tuning in on Christmas Day with a further 1.9m ‘timeshifting’ the episode to catch-up with the goings-on in Albert Square the following week.

It’s easy to buy a licence online, amend or check personal details at any time at www.tvlicensing.co.uk

Customers are licking their lips at the prospect of dining at a Weston pub after the arrival of a top chef in its kitchen.

London-born Tony Love is bringing to The Chequers at Weston about 40 years’ experience which includes cooking for some of the world’s most powerful leaders and at some of London’s most exclusive hotels.

Tony was previously head chef at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, the four-star Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria, and Grade I-listed Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.

He has also cooked at G8 Summits held in Britain and for a number of Prime Ministers at Downing Street.

Tim Bissett, owner of The Chequers, said: “Tony is an old friend of my wife’s and we met him a couple of years ago when he was head chef at a hotel in Wisbech.

“But when he left there, we lost touch with him until a friend who works at the hotel put us in contact with Tony and he agreed to help us out.

“We’re trying to train people up under him because we’d like the Chequers to get a reputation for very good food and good service at a pub that has good ambience.”

Tim and his wife Kate took over the pub in September after seeing its “huge potential for improvement” and they are determined to make it one of the smartest places of its kind in the area.

“We’ve had terrific support from the village since we arrived, everybody says the food is fabulous and people are already planning to have their Christmas meals here.

“Tony is forthright, very knowledgeable and a very likeable character who is helping us make The Chequers like no other pub in the area.”

A woman accused of causing wasteful time of police at Bourne by knowingly making a false report will have her case heard by Spalding magistrates on Thursday.

Lisa Foulston (21), of no fixed address, is also accused of being drunk and disorderly on the same date, November 23.

A warrant without bail has been issued for the arrest of a Spalding man who failed to attend his hearing at the magistrates’ court on Thursday.

Maciej Janczewski (23), of Stonegate, Spalding, is accused of obstructing or resisting PC Karl Cinavas in the execution of his duty on November 25.

Christmas is always a time when there are those extra choccies about, whether they be the assorted tubs, advent calenders, bars or even the little ones you hang on your Christmas tree.

They all look nice and they all taste nice to us and dogs too – BUT did you know that human chocolate is one of the most poisonous things to animals?

For example: a standard bar of milk chocolate eaten by a dog can cause toxic shock to the point that they could need veterinary intervention to flush their system out.

This could mean an injection to help them be sick to bring back up the chocolate and, if severe, can result in them being hospitalised on fluids given directly into their system.

Some very severe cases can result in death, depending on the ratio between the size of dog and the quantity eaten.

Either way veterinary advice should always be sought.

But it’s not all doom and gloom because there are chocolate products on the market that are specifially made for dogs and cats, choc drops are a good example of these and, of course, you can get your pet their very own advent calender, too. Mine have them and they are great fun

From the response to our new column we know this is a topic many pet owners worry about. Thank you for your other questions too. Keep them coming in.

Question:

We have two small kittens that are six months old and they will not leave the Christmas tree baubles alone. We are worried that they may actually eat one. How can we avoid this?

Vet Savers team tip

There is no way that you will ever take the fun side out of a kitten, or indeed the kitten side out of a cat when it comes to shiny and bright balls on a tree.

Here are some pointers though that should help:

1. Oversize your Christmas baubles – by this we mean go a little bigger to avoid the cat getting them actually into their mouths.

2. Secure them safely – Don’t just hang them by the string to keep them fastened to the tree, they can easily be knocked off so we would always recommend that you actually tie them securely on.

3 Don’t leave the tree and the kitten/cat unattended – We had a kitten bought in last week with a fractured back leg as it had climbed up the tree and the tree had fallen over while the owners were out!

4. Lastly...keep your feline friend entertained at ground level as best you can – There are lots of toys available and try to train your cat out of the tree!

If you are worried that yor kitten/cat may have ingested something of the tree the signs to look out for are not wanting to eat, being sick after eating, not passing a poo over two to three days and generally not being themselves.

Obviously all the above symptons could be something else, so if in doubt at all call your vet without delay.

Dont forget that all vets will have an emergency service over the festive period so just call them for the details now....you never know when you may need us.

A man who failed to attend appointments with probation was handed 20 hours unpaid work when he appeared in court on Thursday,

Oliver Thompson (18), of Jubilee Close, Spalding, was given six months supervision and 60 hours unpaid work on October 10 for possession of criminal property, a stolen cycle.

Thompson completed all of the unpaid work by the end of October, but admitted failing to attend three supervision appointments. Magistrates revoked his supervision and added extra hours instead.

Spalding magistrates have ordered the arrest of a man who failed to appear at court on Thursday.

Mark Low (26), of Tolls Lane, Holbeach, is accused of criminally damaging a door at a home in Barrington Gate, Holbeach, on November 22.

Magistrates put out a warrant without bail.

The latest round up from around the local courts.

The following decisions have been made by magistrates at court hearings. In all drink-drive cases the legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood or 107 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine. Addresses of defendants published here are taken from the legal records held by the magistrates’ courts.

Lincoln Magistrates’ Court

December 6

Victoria Howlett (23), of Gershwin Lane, Spalding. Stole clothing and jewellery worth £232 belonging to Oldrids (Boston). Stole footwear and clothes worth £63.97 belonging to TK Maxx (Boston). 12 months conditional discharge, £85 costs.

December 9

Adam Machin (23), of Throxenby Lane, Scarborough. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £60 fine, £20 victim surcharge, £85 costs, 3pts.

Clive Granby (36), of Northorpe Road, Donington. Driving without due care and attention (Quadring Eaudyke). £100 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Nicola Taylor (31), of King Edward Road, Thorne, Doncaster. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Boston Magistrates’ Court

November 21

Rafal Czyzewski (41), of Pinchbeck Road, Spalding. Used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour (Spalding). 12 months conditional discharge, £15 v/s, £85 costs.

Mark Watson (50), of Chestnut Terrace, Sutton Bridge. Assault (Ingoldmells). Community order with requirement to participate in Building Better Relationships Programme, £60 v/c, £85 costs.

November 25

Simon Dawson (48), of Shore Road, Freiston. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £100 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Paul Hunter (46), of Edinburgh Grove, Hartlepool. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £200 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Lloyd Hurford (23), of Brunswick Drive, Skegness. Speeding (Swineshead). £400 fine, £40 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Wiktor Knopik (27), of Camel Gate, Spalding. Speeding (Spalding). £60 fine, £20 v/s, 3pts.

Stuart McBarron (46), of Wesley Avenue, Terrington St Clement. Speeding (Swineshead Bridge). £130 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Sergejs Mitrjuks (24), of Pinchbeck road, Spalding. Failing to give driver ID (Nettleham). £600 fine, £60 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts.

Mandla Nkhlovu (31), of Cherrytree Grove, Spalding. Speeding (Spalding). £100 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 3pts.

Imogen Nichols (28), of Seadyke Bank, Murrow. Speeding (Spalding). £400 fine, £40 v/s, £85 costs, 4pts.

Stephen Townsend (25), of London Road, Boston. No insurance (Kirton). £165 fine, £20 v/s, £85 costs, 6pts. No separate penalty for driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Magistrates warned a banned driver he faces a prison term if he is caught behind the wheel for a second time.

Maris Subenieks (44), of Roman Bank, Spalding, was driving on the A16 at Surfleet on October 28 because his friend had a headache.

Prosecutor Paul Wood said the police automatic number plate recognition system alerted officers to the possibility that the driver was disqualified.

Police stopped the Mitsubishi Charisma and spoke to Subenieks.

Mr Wood said: “Subenieks said he had been driving because a friend of his had a headache. Clearly some larger explanation of that is available from the defendant.”

He said Subenieks was banned from driving for 18 months on February 7 this year for an offence of drink-driving.

Subenieks pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to driving while disqualified and without insurance, when sentence was adjourned for a probation report.

At Thursday’s resumed hearing, he was given a 12 month community order with 200 hours unpaid work and a further 12 month driving ban for driving while disqualified and no separate penalty for driving without insurance.

He must also pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Subenieks was not represented by a solicitor in court and did not explain to magistrates why was driving on the day police stopped him.

Here are the first three entries as we search to find the best Christmas lights in South Holland.

We are asking you, our readers, to send in short videos of your outside displays.

If you haven’t got the technology, don’t worry! Call our newsdesk and one of our staff will come out and take a video for you.

And when we’ve crowned the winning house, the occupants will win some wonderful prizes donated by the competition sponsors.

First prize will be a £100 voucher to spend at Baytree Nurseries Garden Centre in Weston and a £150 Fortnum and Mason classic Christmas hamper provided by Bakkavor Spalding.

The house judged the second best will receive a £50 gift card from Sainsbury’s in Holland Market, Spalding and a £50 voucher from Spalding Lifestyle in Pinchbeck.

And the third prize will be a £25 voucher from Hawkins Home Hardware in Holbeach and a £50 Truly Irresistable hamper from the Anglia Co-operative Travel branch at Spalding, the foodstores at Market Deeping and Bourne and RJ Scholes Funeral Service at Bourne and Deeping St James.

The modern phenomenom of lighting up your home has really caught on in recent years.Many do it to simply cheer up their street. Others are annual extravaganzas which raise money for charity.

We want you to send us a short video of your house lit up. We will publish videos on our website – spaldingtoday.co.uk – as they come in.

Closing date is this Friday, December 20 and the winners will be announced in our special Boxing Day edition of the Spalding Guardian on December 26.

Send your videos to us at jeremy.ransome@jpress.co.uk, including your name, address and phone number.

Please keep videos to a maximum of 15 seconds, keep the camera as still as possible while recording and make sure you show the front of the house in all its glory.

Intruders have targeted two homes in the same Spalding street stealing various items of jewellery.

Both break-ins happened at homes next door to each other in St Andrews Road where intruders got inside one home after smashing a patio door and the other by smashing a kithcen window.

A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said two men were seen running away from one of the homes at about 5pm on Monday and anyone with information should call 101, stating incidents 332 and/or 404 of December 9.

Meanwhile, items have been stolen from a home in Hazelwood Drive which was burgled sometime between 2pm on Wednesday and 11.30pm yesterday.

Anyone with information who calls 101 should state incident 463 of December 12.

People in South Holland and The Deepings are being warned about a scam where fraudsters claim to be working for Royal Mail.

Emails from the fraudsters inform people that a parcel is being held for them, but they contain a computer virus that may escape when the person tries to fill in an attached document.

There are no reports yet of anyone in the area opening such emails but Lincolnshire Police, in partnership with the Royal Mail and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, are advising people not to open the attachment.

A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: “A scam email with the subject header ‘Mail - Lost/Missing Package’ is currently being sent to people fraudently claiming to be from the Royal Mail.

“The email reads ‘Royal Mail have detained your package for some reason such as lack of a proper invoice or a possible trademark violation and the RM International Mail Branch holding it will notify you of the reason for detention (in writing) and how you can get it released.’

“The email then asks the recipient to open up an attachment to complete a document, but it is believed that the attachment contains a zip file with a malicious virus.

“Royal Mail is aware of the scam and is taking action to protect customer from these fraudsters.”

The spokesman added that Royal Mail is advising people that it never send emails asking for personal or confidential information or with attachments unless asked for by the customer.

Anyone with information should call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Patients taken to accident and emergency are waiting for hours outside in ambulances before being admitted.

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) has the third worst case among Britain’s 12 services with one patient waiting for four hours and 37 minutes.

The longest wait – six hours and 22 minutes – was in Wales.

EMAS has been under fire for being Britain’s worst service for 999 and urgent call responses, but bosses say they are not to blame for long waits outside A&E.

EMAS chief executive Sue Noyes said: “We are working with hospitals across the East Midlands to ensure handover happens as quickly as possible so crews can ‘book clear’ and be available to respond to the next 999 call.”

Hospitals are supposed to accept patients within 15 minutes and an emergency medicine specialist has described the long waiting time figures as “alarming”.

A spokesman for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said: “We recognise that handover times at A&E in hospitals across the East Midlands region have an affect on the response times of the East Midlands Ambulance Service and we are working with EMAS and other partners such as social services and Lincolnshire Community Health Services to ensure we can receive patients into A&E in a timely manner.

“Demand on our A&E departments does fluctuate, and at times a high volume of people come through the departments and are brought to the departments in ambulances.

“When this is the case, we deal with cases based on their urgency and the order in which they arrive, which can occasionally lead to some patients waiting slightly longer to be seen than others.”

The spokesman said the trust had introduced several measures to reduce delays.

Health watchdog Dr Foster suggests vital, non-emergency operations are being rationed by the NHS.

The review looked at operations for cataracts, hips and knees and found numbers are falling or levelling off – going against expectations for Britain’s ageing population.

Cataract operations in the NHS South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group fell by 6.42 per cent from 904 to 846 between 2010 and 2012.

Hip and knee operations were almost on a par between the two years with 257 hip operations in 2012, just ten more than 2010, and knee operations up by only two to 300.

Clinical commissioning groups are led by family doctors and commission healthcare for patients.

l The group that covers the Boston area also saw a big fall in cataract operations – some 8.65 per cent – with 190 fewer in 2012 than in 2010.

But hip and knee operations in that area saw big increases.

Spalding could lose its family contact centre unless funds and volunteers are found to help a new charity to run it.

The part-time service in The Ivo Day Centre, in Albion Street, has been run for more than ten years by St John Ambulance and it allows families suffering break-ups or other problems to have contact with their children in a neutral setting.

But St John is pulling the plug on the centre at the end of this year, along with three others in Grantham, Skegness and Gainsborough.

The Spalding family contact centre co-ordinator Katie Wright faces redundancy at the end of the year.

Mrs Wright said St John wants to concentrate “on their core business, which is first aid training”.

She said a steering committee is forming a new charity to try to keep the centres open and some funds have been found.

Volunteers are also being asked to step forward to offer advice and support to the committee in roles like secretary and treasurer and to help run the fortnightly Saturday morning sessions.

Mrs Wright said: “If you were to ask a family lawyer, they would say the centre is a lifeline for some families – it’s just a venue that people can go to and see their child.”

Family lawyer Anita Toal, from Spalding solicitors Maples, said it will have “a devastating impact on local families” if the Spalding contact centre closes as it is a lifeline for some parents who want to see their children.

Mrs Toal said: “I think there is one contact centre in Lincoln that doesn’t come under St John, but that’s obviously too far for the families in Sutton Bridge, and there’s one at Peterborough, but that’s going to have a massive waiting list.”

l For more information – or if you are interested in joining the committee or volunteering at the centre – please email info@lincs-scc.org or call Paula Gale on 07770 892287.

For committee roles an interest in and knowledge of funding applications, family law, child law and early years’ background may be of benefit but is not essential.

Farmers in South Holland and The Deepings are being urged to help prevent dangerous conditions on the area’s roads caused by mud.

Police are advising farmers to put out warning sides while working on their land to alert drivers to the risk of slippery road surfaces.

Farmers should also clear up any roads they work on at the end of each day.