Today is World Cerebral Palsy Day
Between 17 and 50 million people in the world live with cerebral palsy. One in 400 births result in a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. The new campaign to educate people about the condition and also to drive fundraising efforts is called More Than Palsy created by DUDE Milan along with poet and cerebral palsy advocate, Jack Hunter. He lives with cerebral palsy and wrote the poem “You’ve Got to be Ballsy to have Cerebral Palsy” .
The raw campaign will tell the story of what it is really like to live with cerebral palsy.
Improvements planned in Drylaw
A council consultation ends on Wednesday about the proposals to improve the area around the shopping centre – not the shopping centre itself. The planned changes would alter the car parking area making it safer and easier to use as well as providing new planted areas and fixing the stairs and ramps which would make the area look better.
Have your say here by 8 October: https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/drylaw-consultation
Nobles Bar under new ownership
Nobles Bar on Constitution Street has been closed for the last month but it will reopen under the ownership of Bellfield Brewery after refurbishment.
The plan is to renovate the bar and cellar areas and new staff will be recruited and trained how to sell the 14 draught keg lines which Bellfield offer along with real ale.
Alistair Brown, co-founder of Bellfield Brewery, said: “Nobles has always been a landmark in Leith. Our goal is to celebrate its history while bringing in new energy — more beers, more events, and a warm, welcoming atmosphere that reflects everything we love about craft beer and community.”
Learn to Play
UK charity ‘Music for All’ are holding their annuall flagship event Learn to Play this autumn. Anyone interested in music-making has the a chance to take part in the biggest free music making weekend of the year.
The event will be held by Morningside School of Music from 9-12 October and is open to everyone; regardless of age, experience and background and provides opportunities for participants to experience a free taster music making lesson
Learn to Play aims to inspire, encourage and enable both new and lapsed music makers to enjoy the huge benefits of creating music.
Research shows that listening to music and playing a musical instrument can have profound positive benefits on brain health from childhood through to late adulthood. Morningside School of Music say that in a 2024 report published by the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, more than 1,100 people with an average age of 68 were studied practising and reading music to help sustain good memory and the ability to solve complex tasks.
The results showed that people who played musical instruments benefitted the most because of the “multiple cognitive demands” of the activity. They concluded music should be considered as part of a lifestyle approach to maintain the brain as humans age.
The Edinburgh Union debate
The Edinburgh Union will host its second debate tonight, Monday 6 October, with a panel of politicians and medical experts debating the motion: This House Welcomes the Legalisation of Assisted Dying, at Rainy Hall, New College on Mound Place.
The debate will feature Kenneth Gibson MSP representing the case for assisted dying. He will be opposite Dr Fiona MacCormick, the Scotland Representative for the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland (APM) and Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, representing the case against.
Two student speakers will also join the debate, taking opposing sides on the motion and bringing the perspectives of Edinburgh’s student body directly into the discussion.
This second event follows the success of the Edinburgh Union’s first debate on Scottish Independence last month, in which a panel of senior Scottish politicians debated to a full audience. This week’s debate is set to be a similar hit, with all 100 tickets selling out in just 4 hours.
The debate takes place just months after the Scottish assisted dying bill passed its first vote in Holyrood in May this year. More information on the union’s Instagram page here.
