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Leeds student has designs on changing minds about healthy choices
Now Stacey, a postgraduate student studying for her Nutrition in Practice MSc at Leeds Beckett University, has used her design skills to produce an informative new resource to explain the importance of nutrition for children with asthma.
Stacey said: “I think we're surrounded by so much misinformation nowadays, we’re just bombarded with so much, you just you don't know what to believe really. So, I feel like reading something that's been written by somebody that knows what they're talking about, who genuinely cares about getting the truth across and nothing else, I think that's so important, especially when you are trying to educate the public about health matters for children.
“It needs to be simple, and it needs to be fun. I've just got a few little humorous elements in there, just something that just makes people engaged when they're reading, so they're not just reading a public health announcement.
“It needs to be presented without being judgmental as well, I think some messages can come across to judgmental, or too much like you're telling someone what to do. And I think that just gets people's backs up. So, it's finding that fine balance.”
The child-focussed resource Asthma: What you can do to help! explains how looking after microbes in the body can help reduce the symptoms of asthma in children. Stacey has also included tips on asthma-friendly exercises that can help children build up strength and lung capacity.
Stacey’s tutor at Leeds Beckett, Dr Andrea Peakall, said: “Stacey wrote two exceptional blogs on different lifestyle diseases for her MSc assessment, which clearly demonstrated a talent for presenting knowledge and understanding in a user-friendly format with clarity and depth. In the case of the article on asthma, she combined her graphic skills to provide fun and interactive support to a child-based audience. This was an outstanding concept and worthy of being published. Hopefully Stacey’s passion for nutrition and her ability to write about science to different audiences will lead to a bright future.”
Stacey has now offered her designs to any health, education or public service organisation that would find them useful.
She said: “I don't know who would be able to use these, but I’d be really happy for someone to take them and use them. I suppose what would be really great is if it actually made the slightest difference to someone’s life. And I suppose if anything that I write could make a difference to somebody that would be really, really amazing.”
The Nutrition in Practice MSc is a part-time, distance learning programme delivered over two years by Leeds Beckett University. It offers students access to fantastic placements, specialist facilities and real-life projects, and is accredited by the Association for Nutrition.