Good health and giggles for women at VMC health seminar

More than 200 women came along to be entertained, informed and showered with exciting prizes at the Virtual Medical Centre’s inaugural health seminar held last night.

The free one-hour seminar on "how to be and stay healthy" was attended by women of all ages and featured an informative and fun presentation by GP Dr Joe Kosterich, a professional speaker, health expert and leader in the field of wellness.

Dr Joe’s humorous talk elicited frequent giggles from the audience whilst at the same time instilling an important message of health and wellbeing, in which his main advice was to "keep it simple".

He said people often became overwhelmed by inaccurate and sensational health warnings in the media, and gave up trying to be healthy because it seemed too difficult.

But through a discussion of good lifestyle habits, Dr Joe showed that keeping healthy is not a complicated affair, and anyone can lead a happy and healthy life.

As well as receiving valuable motivational health advice, guests at the seminar were also entertained with a performance from internationally-acclaimed comedian Lou Kelman.

Lou brought the house down with her light-hearted, G-rated tales and poems about the everyday troubles of womanhood that we can all relate to, such as marriage, hormones and growing old.

One of her stories recounted the tale of a woman who, still single at 40, hung a pair of "big purple undies" at the end of her bed in desperation and prayed every night for God to fill them with a man.

Another hilarious poem Lou performed was entitled "The first mammogram is the worst – especially when the machine catches on fire."

A more serious message about mammograms was offered by the final presenter for the evening, Sherryl Potts, who has been a nurse for over thirty years and has worked for the Breast Cancer Foundation of WA for almost two years.

Sherryl talked about her inspirational work in treating and supporting women with breast cancer, and urged everyone to be "breast aware" and avoid the worst through early detection.

"If you notice anything different, get it checked. No woman is too young to be affected by breast cancer, and about one in eight women in Australia will be affected by breast cancer," she said.

All the ladies who attended the seminar were presented with a free bag of goodies and many went home with bags loaded with prizes including bottles of Brookhampton Estate Wine, Kailis Extra Virgin Olive Oil and gift vouchers.

Michelle Dutton, a final-year medical student, said she had thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

"The speakers presented the information in a really simplified way which was friendly and fun and easy for everyone to understand," she said.

Another guest, Annette Hercus, said she enjoyed the night’s entertainment, and felt motivated to improve her eating habits after listening to Dr Joe speak.

"It’s made me want to change everything that’s in my pantry and replace it with healthy fresh food!" she said.

Sherryl Potts agreed that the night was a great success.

"I’m delighted that I was able to speak at this event. It’s great to see so many women making the effort to come along and hear about health issues," she said.

For those who missed the seminar, another one will be held next Tuesday the 9th of September in Fremantle Town Hall, and you can register for it online.

If you would like to see Lou Kelman’s hilarious two hour show, she will be performing at the Wild Wild West comedy festival in Perth this November. Visit the Big Purple Undies website for more information.