Posted on

Bay Health Festivals seeks corporate sponsors for its wellbeing events

Businesses and organisations are invited to support the wellbeing of the Morecambe Bay area by becoming sponsors of Bay Health Festivals.

Launched in 2017, Bay Health Festivals was created by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust lead chaplain Rev Ian Dewar with the aim of starting conversations that would lead to healthier, happier lives for people in our region.

The festival team is now looking for corporate sponsors to help the events to continue to grow and reach more people.

Rev Dewar said: “As Bay Health Festivals grows we’re looking for support from the community to fund our events.

“From individual donations to headline sponsorship, all contributions to our population health mission are gratefully received.

“When we launched Bay Health Festivals the plan was always to receive seed funding from the trust while we established our brand.

“Bay Health Festivals is a staff-led initiative we have achieved so much to date using a number of small charitable grants and a huge amount of free staff time. But we’re ambitious, and we’re now working to do more events, make them bigger and better, and achieve financial self-sufficiency.”

The idea behind the festivals is to inspire people to make small lifestyle changes that add up to big improvements in our mental and physical health.

More people improving their diet, doing more exercise, and addressing potential health problems early can reduce the financial burden on the NHS and make our communities healthier.

Rev Dewar said: “In the eight years since we launched Bay Health Festivals, we have been gathering momentum and reaching more and more people with our message about improving health through rediscovering ‘the lost art of living’.

“We’re looking for sponsors who share our wish to improve the health of our population and become a part of the Bay Health Festivals movement.

“A healthy population is an economically-strong population. We know that people who live around Morecambe Bay are immensely proud of the region and want to see it thrive – we can all play a part in that by looking after our health.

“Whether you want to make a contribution large or small, please get in touch and be part of our work to help people to live healthier, happier lives.”

Forthcoming Bay Health Festivals events include:

  • Dalton Square, Lancaster, July 13 & 14: Free health checks, live entertainment and a huge selection of health and wellbeing organisations on Saturday, following by a ‘celebration of cycling’ event on Sunday
  • Kendal Leisure Centre, October 27: Our Sunday Funday event with lots of activities to inspire healthy lifestyles
  • The team also has ambitions to organise an additional event in Barrow

From sponsoring a monthly email newsletter, to becoming a headline event supporter, there are packages available for all budgets. To find out more about the packages available, email ian.dewar@mbht.nhs.uk

Posted on

Digital signature software boss calls for reforms to law on signing of wills

The CEO of a pioneering digital signature software company has called for modernisation of the law to allow wills to be signed online.

Steven Tallant, Chief Executive of Liverpool-based Videosign, says outdated regulations around signing and witnessing of wills have failed to keep up with technological developments.

Current law requires wills to be signed with pen and ink and witnessed in person. A temporary amendment allowing wet signatures to be witnessed online was introduced in England and Wales during the Covid pandemic, but is due to expire at the end of January 2024.

The Videosign CEO has written to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice Lord Bellamy KC to make the case for updating the legal framework for making wills.

Mr Tallant said: “It’s legal to sign most contracts and documents online these days, but wills remain one of the few areas where a pen-and-ink signature is required.

“There are very good reasons why the security and probity of wills is taken seriously. But there are equally valid reasons to improve processes in the UK to take advantage of the benefits technology has to offer.

“Other countries are now ahead of the UK in terms of modernising this area of law. For example, many US states are introducing laws allowing wills to be both witnessed and signed digitally.

“I hope that Lord Bellamy will agree with me that there is an opportunity here to modernise this archaic process.”

The Videosign CEO said a recent personal experience had given him additional insight into the shortcomings of relying on paper wills.

He said: “The flaws in the current system were brought into focus for me recently after my aunt died suddenly in December of last year, and I was named as executor of her will.

“The process took months to complete, largely due to queries that were raised over the authenticity of the will – which was legally required to be written on paper and signed in ink.

“Statements from witnesses had to be sent in the post, documents went missing, and the whole process dragged on for longer than it needed to.

“All of the issues could have been resolved in minutes by referring to the video evidence and digital documents if technology like Videosign had been used to sign the will in the first place, rather than depending on physical paperwork that can be easily damaged or lost.

“I’m sure many people will have much more difficult experiences than mine while dealing with probate, and I would love to see the UK legislate to bring wills into the digital age at last.”

Headquartered in Liverpool and with a development hub in Glasgow, Videosign launched in 2019 aiming to develop a solution more secure, efficient and convenient than the traditional pen-and-ink signature.

The software uses AI-driven facial recognition to identify signatories and records video evidence of documents being signed.