:-)In August 2006 my wife was diagnosed as having he coeliac (celiac) disease, we contacted the UK Coeliac Group and obtained lots of useful information, but we didn't meet anyone, we couldn't ask, simple but basic questions, we didn't want to go to expensive luncheons, we just neede to meet other people, who were on the same journey and had more experience, like where do you, buy, eat out ,shop for and lots more.
So as I am retired and looking for something to get my teeth into, we decided to find out if others living near us shared the same gluten free problems and wanted to share their experiences, with either newcomers or even more experienced people.
So we contacted a local church, who offered us 2 dates in one of their church halls, we got the local press to run a story about what we were trying to achieve and we held two very successful meetings, which has since lead to the commencement of our Group.
So our group commenced in February 2007, we had no help from our UK Coeliac Society, they didn't really want us to proceed, but following our 2 exploratory meetings, we had decided to go ahead and to find out if sufferers from gluten, wanted to meet on a regular basis and exchange local information, after all we live in a gluten filled world and our members are trying to remain gluten free. We are growing at around 5 new members at each meeting. we meet on the htird Saturday of each month and if there are any gluten free sufferers visiting near Gatwick Airport, we are only 5 minutes drive away from there and you will be most welcomed to join us.
In August 2006 my wife was quite ill, within 8 weeks she was back to her normal self and in January 2007 she even re-started to teach adult Tap Dancing Classes, now she runs the raffles at our monthy meetings, we have guest speakers at each meeting, we had our local hospital Senior Dietician give an excellent slide show, we discuss informally all local events and local difficulties.
Achievements to date, we have a local superstore displaying our Group's details on their gluten free shelves and another with our details on their notice board. We have all local Doctor's Surgeries displaying our details, on their notice boards. We have a www. domain but not yet a web page, we are looking for help in doing this, anyone out there would like to help us. We have a registered blog on Wordpress.com, but we again need help to get us started, so if there is someone out there please, a good blogger or web designer, then please get in touch with us and help us to help all those sufferers, whether coeliacs, or celiacs, or IBS, or just sufferers having to stay on a strict gluten free diet.
Thanks Don Tombs, Organiser Crawley Gluten Free Group, West Sussex, UK
