A WEST Belfast healthy living centre is offering free breast screening and 'MOT' health checks in a bid to save lives.
Supported by Action Cancer, the Divis-based H.E.A.R.T. Project will bring its "Big Bus" clinic to the Andersonstown Leisure on Tuesday between 9.20am and 3.30pm.
Breast screening is available for women aged 40 to 49 and 70 plus, while 'MOT' health checks – which include cholesterol, blood pressure and body mass checks – are available for everyone aged 16 and above.
Meanwhile, the H.E.A.R.T. Project will host a health day, offering a range of checks and therapies, at the Maureen Sheehan Centre between 1 and 4pm.
We used to have a health day twice a year, but this is our first from Covid because we couldn't bring people in," Jackie Brennan from the project said.
"It's a way of bringing the community together and we try to put things on that will encourage the male population to come in in particular.
"We have a good resource and we offer facials, reflexology and acupuncture on the day to try to entice people in."
She said the initiatives will aim to prevent serious illness.
"People can get their height, weight, and their body mass index done, we have podiatry advice, debt management advice, postural analysis, food intolerance checks," she explained.
"People have to take responsibility for their own health, so it's their choice to come and have these checks done. If say, for example, they have high cholesterol they can then visit their GP for advice.
"We had somebody before whose blood pressure was sky high and we were able then to get a nurse on site to see that client and to get an ambulance for them. If that person hadn't come into that health day you wouldn't know what would have happened."
To book your spot on the Big Bus call 02890803344, or for further enquiries call the H.E.A.R.T. Project 02890310346.
