How 'heart health' cooking sessions are changing women's lives

On an autumnal morning, a group of seven women in midlife are gathering at their local library to eat, laugh and improve their health.

The British Heart Foundation has funded cooking sessions as part of its Your Heart Your Move programme, and they aim to tackle diet and lifestyle among women aged 40-74 who are at risk of cardiovascular issues.

Woodlands Community Library is in Doncaster, a city with high levels of deprivation according to NHS figures - and the former mining village is one of its poorer neighbourhoods.

The library, volunteer-run since 2022, offers classes and family activities and its side room makes an ideal location for food preparation.

For some, the sessions have changed their lives.

Doncaster has high rates of obesity and smoking among women, and while life expectancy is long, they enjoy fewer years in good health.

Kath Purdie, 61, has Type 2 diabetes, and is preparing her first-ever fish curry.

Remembering her diet before her diagnosis, she says: "It was probably drinking too much alcohol. I love wine. Lots and lots of sugar in wine, lots of calories in wine.

"I'm a right foodie too. Portion size was too big. My partner likes massive portions, so I do the same for myself."

Purdie, who works in health and safety training, did lose weight, but now feels she has hit a plateau and is trying to cut back on fatty foods such as chips and butter.

Doncaster is the 28th most-deprived local authority area of the 151 in England.

Hannah Popple, the local NHS primary care network manager, says: "Women have really low healthy life expectancy here, so they're still living long but they are living to a poorer quality."

The 12-week course, which launched earlier this year, also includes sessions on nutrition and exercise.

A new group will soon start up in Carcroft, and sessions in Bentley and Askern will begin next year. All are former mining communities.

The women taking part were referred by their GPs. Popple adds: "We identified a group of ladies who might be at risk of future issues such as a heart attack or a stroke, so they might be slightly overweight, they might be smokers, they might have a family history.

"This programme will hopefully help to reduce the risk of that happening in the future and therefore reduce the strain on the NHS.

"This is all about prevention. We want to try and educate them now to prevent those things happening in 10-15 years."

Leading the sessions is Amy Gallagher, whose Community Interest Company (CIC), Recipe 4 Change, won the contract to deliver them.

Her ethos is to teach people of all ages how to cook cheap and healthy meals and she says working with her class of women has been rewarding.

Gallagher talks through the ingredients in the coconut and red lentil fish curry.

"We're not going to be using salt in this recipe. We've got reduced fat coconut milk, as opposed to the high fatty ones.

"Everyone's struggling at the minute financially, so I've gone for affordable fish. This is about £3, it's frozen. I'm then going to demonstrate that you can use frozen green beans too."

Gallagher provides constant tips about cooking and even chopping techniques, and gives advice about bulk meal preparation and freezing leftovers.

Amanda Mikaoauskas, 51, was referred after struggling to exercise following foot surgery. She has rheumatoid arthritis and is a carer for her husband and her mother.

"It gets me out of the house, which is so important.

"My disease stops me from doing certain things but I know I should be doing more exercise."

She was taken aback to be chosen for the course, but now makes healthier food choices.

"I don't use salt in anything now. I've been using a lot more spices.

"I never had a fruit bowl, I now have one that is full every week, and I've started eating nuts and seeds."

One of the older attendees is Sheena Bathgate, 68, a retired warehouse worker.

"I'm going swimming again. I swam before and I've now upped my lengths each week.

"I had spices in my cupboard that just sat there gathering dust, then I threw them out because they'd gone out of date. But now I'm using them!"

Bathgate has also seen some physical changes since altering her diet.

"My nails have always been really fragile and splitting down the middle.

"But since I've been tweaking certain things and having more protein, my nails have got so much better and I've managed to keep hold of them instead."

Popple, overseeing the programme, says the first sessions have seen "strong results" with six of the participants recording a reduction in their BMI. The average weight loss per person was 1.8kg (3.9lbs) over six weeks.

Summing up the course's impact, she adds: "They are all so actively engaged, it's become a real community and the women all really get on. We've got a Whatsapp peer support group so they support and motivate each other, and it's not about making huge changes or being told off or anything like that.

"It's little steps they can take every day or every week just to slowly improve their health, not do everything drastically overnight."

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