Fifth Sense

Today Helen, Fifth Sense Engagement and Education Officer, is at the Nottinghamshire Carers Association Caring Roadshow at Riverside Surgery, Bulwell.

The roadshow features a range of local services and organisations from Health and Social Care. It's free to attend and runs until 2 pm.

Helen, our Engagement and Education Officer, is at Healthwatch Nottingham & Nottinghamshire's Annual Showcase event today,

If you're in Mansfield, head to the Central Library before 3pm to listen to guest speakers, participate in interactive activities and browse a variety of stalls and displays from partner organisations.

Fifth Sense recently had its most significant public engagement opportunity to date through a collaboration on The Making Sense Garden at the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.

You can read a summary on our website:
https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/the-making-sense-garden-triumphs-at-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/

Images on the right: Sam Lane Photography.

*Reminder* Can you spare a minute to nominate Fifth Sense to win £1,000 in the Movement for Good Draw? There is still time before the draw closes at midnight on Sunday 21st July and you can nominate us here: https://movementforgood.com/

You only need to nominate once to enter Fifth Sense into all the £1,000 draws for the rest of the year so thank you to those who have done already this year. Nominations for previous years don’t count.

Once you’ve nominated, please share the link and encourage your friends and family to do the same. The more nominations we receive, the better our chances of being randomly drawn.

As part of Nottinghamshire Youth Outreach and Nottinghamshire Police's ongoing commitment to reduce knife crime and serious youth violence, today we are collaborating with dozens of other organisations to provide an impactful event for the whole community.

Join us between 2pm and 5pm at Edwards Lane Community Centre, Alderton Road, Sherwood, NG5 6DX.

The event also includes free hot food and refreshments, sports and activities, a live DJ, entertainment, guest speakers, a free raffle, face painting and more.

This piece by Jonathan Kenwright describes his experience of congenital anosmia:

https://metro.co.uk/2023/07/13/ive-never-been-able-to-smell-im-always-worrying-about-one-thing-19063426/

If you are also affected, please download our information sheet: https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/information-sheets/

Our next Congenital Anosmia Support Group will meet online on Wednesday 11 September, 7.00 - 8.15 pm (UK time). We will email our members when bookings open so, if you haven't already joined Fifth Sense, please do so here: https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/join/

Can you spare a minute before Sunday 21st July to nominate Fifth Sense to win £1,000 in the Movement for Good Draw?

You can nominate us here: https://movementforgood.com/

You only need to nominate once to enter Fifth Sense into all the £1,000 draws for the rest of the year so thank you to those who have done already this year. Nominations for previous years don’t count.

Once you’ve nominated, please share the link and encourage your friends and family to do the same. The more nominations we receive, the better our chances of being randomly drawn.

Clinicians and researchers interested in olfaction, gustation and chemosensory disorders attended our two-day Symposium on Smell and Taste Disorders, which also hosted a forum exclusively for Fifth Sense members.

Read about it here: https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/smell-and-taste-symposium-2024-2/

A dedicated group of Fifth Sense volunteers have formed to set up the new Birmingham Smell and Taste Action Group. The group is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and supported by our host venue, St Philips Chambers.

This is the first of our new groups, which aim to:
• Provide localised peer support activities
• Help raise awareness of smell and taste disorders at a local level
• Fundraise for Fifth Sense

Events are also an opportunity to meet new people who understand the challenging symptoms of smell and taste disorders.

The group invites anyone affected by smell and taste disorders to join them for the free launch event on Wednesday 17 July, 2.30pm to 4pm, at St Philips Chambers, 55 Temple Row, Birmingham B2 5LS.

Please book a free ticket for each person attending here: https://fifth-sense.eventcube.io/events/61604/birmingham-smell-and-taste-disorders-meet-up/

If you are an organisation that supports people in the Birmingham area, and you can help promote this meet-up event, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us on [email protected]

Thank you to the team at St Philips Chambers for generously hosting this event.

Fifth Sense The charity for people affected by smell and taste disorders

Visitors to today's Birmingham Disability Festival were able to learn more about smell and taste disorders and the work our charity is doing from Helen, Fifth Sense Engagement and Education Officer.

As well as information stands, this inaugural event showcased a wide range of disabled talent through music, movement and dance performances, sports including blind football, interactive games and products for sale created by disabled business owners.

We're thrilled to announce that The Making Sense Garden has won the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival People’s Choice Award in the Getting Started category.

Thank you to everyone who voted for it.

You can read about The Making Sense Garden and the other winners here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/rhs-peoples-choice-award

We're still having a great time at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, where we're raising awareness of smell and taste disorders with visitors.

Here's a different view showing the two levels of The Making Sense Garden with (L-R) Fifth Sense volunteer Matthew Williams from IFF, Flora and Vickie from Scouarnec and Pease-Cox Garden Design, Fifth Sense member and volunteer Sue Cooke and Fifth Sense Support and Information Officer, Mags Robinson.

Did you see the garden featured on BBC Gardeners World last night? If you didn't, you can watch it on demand or on BBC2 tomorrow at 9am or next Thursday at 8am.

Don't miss BBC Gardeners World tonight at 8pm on BBC2, coming from the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and featuring The Making Sense Garden.

Visitors to our stand at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival will be able to sample the Making Sense perfume.

Created by Sarah McCartney, Fifth Sense advisory board member and independent perfumer from 4160Tuesdays, the perfume includes essential oils from some of the plants found in The Making Sense Garden.

The refreshingly herbal eau de parfum includes lavender, rosemary, geranium and mint, added to Indian palmarosa with biodegradable synthetic perfumery materials - animal-friendly musks, woods, and amber molecules.

Sarah told us, "People are often surprised to discover that the aromachemicals are far safer on the skin than natural materials. Essential oils each contain hundreds of chemicals, designed to help plants survive by fending off attack.

"Their medicinal powers have been harnessed for millennia. Our blend is both reviving and balancing and the synthetic materials give it a smooth wearability and help it to last longer on the skin."

You can find out more about The Making Sense Garden here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/gardens/2024/making-sense-garden

We had a great time yesterday welcoming members of the press to The Making Sense Garden for the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival press day.

It was lovely to see BBC R4 Gardener’s Question Time presenter Kathy Clugston, who joined us for the afternoon and recorded an interview with garden designers Vickie Pease-Cox and Flora Scouarnec, and our CEO Duncan Boak.

We’re looking forward to chatting with RHS members today before the Festival opens to the wider public tomorrow.

This is a great opportunity for us to highlight the impact of smell and taste disorders to the public.

Please show your support by voting for The Making Sense Garden in the RHS People’s Choice Awards. You'll find it listed under the Getting Started category: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/rhs-peoples-choice-award

The lower area of the Making Sense Garden emulates a comfortable space for people affected by smell and taste disorders. It’s a place where they could relax, talk, and enjoy the sights and sounds around them.

The area features a log bench shaded by a tree, a simple water feature and two beautiful multi-stemmed trees with tactile bark to frame the view.

L-R: Vickie Pease-Cox, designer of The Making Sense Garden; Sarah Pearce, Fifth Sense Director of Services and Operations; Marianna Obrist, Professor of Multisensory Interfaces at University College London; Duncan Boak, Fifth Sense CEO and Founder and Flora Scouarnec, designer of The Making Sense Garden.

Find out more about the features in the garden here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/gardens/2024/making-sense-garden

Are you going to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival? Don't miss visiting Fifth Sense at the silver medal-winning Making Sense Garden.

A collaboration between Fifth Sense and Scouarnec and Pease-Cox Garden Design, the garden enhances the senses of touch, hearing and sight with captivating textures, colours, shapes, and sounds across two levels.

Members of our team and volunteers will be in the activation zone adjacent to the garden, where visitors can learn more about the garden and participate in interactive activities related to smell and taste.

Find out more here: https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/the-making-sense-garden-at-the-rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/

A dedicated group of Fifth Sense volunteers have formed to set up the new Birmingham Smell and Taste Action Group. The group is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and supported by our host venue, St Philips Chambers.

This is the first of our new groups, which aim to:

• Provide localised peer support activities
• Help raise awareness of smell and taste disorders at a local level
• Fundraise for Fifth Sense

Events are also an opportunity to meet new people who understand the challenging symptoms of smell and taste disorders.

The group invites anyone affected by smell and taste disorders to join them for the free launch event on Wednesday 17 July, 2.30pm to 4pm, at St Philips Chambers, 55 Temple Row, Birmingham B2 5LS.

Please book a free ticket for each person attending here: https://fifth-sense.eventcube.io/events/61604/birmingham-smell-and-taste-disorders-meet-up/

If you are an organisation that supports people in the Birmingham area, and you can help promote this meet-up event, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us on [email protected]

Thank you to the team at St Philips Chambers for generously hosting this event.

Duncan Boak, Fifth Sense CEO and Founder, recently delivered a session at the Patient Organisation-led Symposium at ISOT 2024.

Duncan’s talk highlighted the breadth and depth of activity that Fifth Sense is undertaking, leading the drive for more support, increased professional and public education, and further research on smell and taste disorders in the UK.

Duncan spoke about how Fifth Sense is using research to drive societal change in the UK, including how our Smell Safety research project is helping to secure funding to deliver a significant project in partnership with Cadent, the UK’s largest gas distribution network. This is supporting a pioneering body of work to raise awareness of the safety implications of olfactory dysfunction and ensure that people with smell disorders have the support and information they need to stay safe and well at home.

Duncan also talked about the charity’s research collaborations, including the SmellCare project led by Prof Marianna Obrist and her team at University College London and ongoing work with Prof Carl Philpott’s research team at the University of East Anglia.

Duncan would like to thank Jean-Michel Maillard at Anosmie, the French patient organisation, for arranging the symposium and the conference organisers for hosting it.

Find out more about the Smell Safety research project here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00405-024-08529-9

Find out more about the SmellCare project here: www.smell-care.co.uk

Find out more about ISOT 2024 here: https://isot2024.is/

Jenny Thomas has been living with parosmia for almost four years. Specialists have been unable to determine the exact cause of her challenging symptoms, and she is currently seeking further medical advice.

Jenny will be sharing her story at our upcoming online education event for patients and professionals on smell and taste changes following a virus.

The event, which will take place on 24 June 2024, is now fully booked. A recording will be uploaded to the Fifth Sense YouTube channel around a week after the event, so check back here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8WQptnvQvFZdDgaO9kWnuw

Fifth Sense volunteer Jenny Thomas is planning a Parosmia Support Group meetup in the Manchester area later in the summer.

Are you able to support Jenny with planning this event, or would you like to host a meetup in your local community? Please email Sally Connick, Fifth Sense Community Development Officer, on [email protected]

We’ll post details of Jenny’s meetup on social media when arrangements have been finalised, so look out for those.

Fifth Sense volunteer Jenny Thomas is planning a Parosmia Support Group meetup in the Manchester area later in the summer.

Are you able to support Jenny with planning this event, or would you like to host a meetup in your local community? Please email Sally Connick, Fifth Sense Community Development Officer, on [email protected]

We’ll post details of Jenny’s meetup on social media when arrangements have been finalised, so look out for those.

If you’d like to know more about how Jenny manages her parosmia symptoms, watch her video here: https://fifthsense-my.sharepoint.com/personal/duncan_fifthsense_org_uk/_layouts/15/stream.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fduncan%5Ffifthsense%5Forg%5Fuk%2FDocuments%2FFifth%20Sense%2FServices%2FSupport%20and%20Information%20Mags%2FEvents%2FEducation%20events%20P%20and%20Ps%2F2%2E%20PVOD%2FOn%20the%20night%20folder%2FVideos%2FJenny%20Thomas%202%2E%20Coping%2Emp4&referrer=StreamWebApp%2EWeb&referrerScenario=AddressBarCopied%2Eview%2E741cfdd1%2Dcba8%2D4d92%2D8b71%2Daaf435b24581&ga=1

Parosmia can be mild and in response to specific odours, or more severe and triggered by virtually any smell. It can be an incredibly debilitating and depressing experience, and the causes are not fully understood.

Our ‘coping with parosmia/phantosmia’ information sheet gives practical advice for anyone affected, including how to keep a log to work out triggers, changes and safe smells.

Visit our website to download it:
https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/download/8029/

Fifth Sense supports Parosmia Awareness Day, which aims to improve awareness and understanding of the condition.

Someone with parosmia may be able to detect odours, but all or most things smell different and are often unpleasant. These unpleasant odours can smell like chemicals, burning, faeces, rotting flesh and mould.

Fifth Sense directly supports anyone affected by parosmia with an online support group and website resources. We also campaign for greater recognition of the impact of smell and taste disorders on people’s health, wellbeing and safety, along with the need for better services, support and research to help those affected and their families.

Please visit our website to find out more and sign up, free of charge, to join Fifth Sense as a member to be amongst the first to hear about our events: https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/

Are you affected by smell distortions? Would you like to connect with other people who understand?

Register by midday to join our next Parosmia Support Group event, for people with Parosmia, Phantosmia or Hyperosmia.

Hosted by Fifth Sense and our volunteer Lived Experience Experts, this online event will provide you with an open, supportive and relaxed environment to share your thoughts and feelings about living with a distorted sense of smell.

Find out more here: https://fifth-sense.eventcube.io/events/60625/fifth-sense-letstalksmellandtaste-parosmia-support-group/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2sl3hzv2cAFdeYDO0A0zBrSMtYZsCjdvdFs-vFWEXVd7BX7SuhL-UHx7I_aem_AZDO1lRIMO-ADfI3n8s1OMaSXfcJ0OCGaqh5wDnYZb0OxTzLBcCCywuk-Puo5NrLDbqGh6FZKvMaqaIN2jhv2ITy

An interesting story from Florida.

For decades, a Florida woman had no sense of smell. Can she get it back? As the pandemic stole millions of people’s “fifth sense,” Barbara Walker’s seemed to be coming back. But why?