Prevention is better than cure

Walt: respond to the presentation given by the public health department.

Prevention is better than Cure

On Tuesday 6 August, at 11 o'clock, some people came to our school to chat to all the students about keeping our skin healthy. Dr. Alison Leversha talked to us about keeping our skin healthy and telling us what to do when we have a sore throat. She told us about a swab going into your mouth to take a sample of your throat, and the swab will go to the lab to get analysed. She demonstrated how a swab is taken by using one of the warriors.

Three warriors came to our school to show our students how to say “ahh”. The Vodafone Warriors names were Ben Henry, Steve Rapira and Sione Louis. Sione got his throat checked that day. After they were on the stage they walked down the stairs and sat on some chairs. They made the students listen to them.

Awen Guttenbeil talked about his experience. One day he had a sore throat and he didn't want to tell his parents because he loved playing sports. The next morning he woke up and he felt paralysed, he had sore joints and he couldn't walk. Awen had to drag himself down the hallway to warn his parents that he couldn't feel anything, they were concerned. For 10 years afterwards he had to take his injections on his hip but continued to  play sports.

All the people who came that day were truly amazing and tried their very best to send a message to everyone. I think that they all did a great job explaining to the students about the link between skin problems ,sore throats and rheumatic fever. The message is  don’t ignore a sore throat or skin problems because it could lead to rheumatic fever.