The one where we ask you to vote...

Posted by Mark Welford, Fuse Communications Officer, Teesside University

This post is a little like those episodes of Friends in which one of the cast says: “Do you remember the time when [cue wobbly vertical lines]…” and the rest of the 22-23mins is made up of clips from previous shows.

Courtesy of photobucket.com/user/xuyu79/media/blog/s7/s07e18 / Warner Bros.

Let me take you back to a post on Thursday 7 January in which we made a shameless plea to ask for your votes in the UK Blog Awards 2016.  In that post we told you how the blog’s 334 posts had received just over 167,000 views.  Eleven months on and 40 additional blog posts later, the page views have risen to nearly 325,000 - a fantastic achievement I hope you’ll agree!  I discovered this when an ambitious academic asked me if I could provide them with some killer stats about the blog to support their bid for a promotion. The power this blog wields!

This year we have had posts covering everything from Dry January, the ‘nanny state’, animation, Jamie Oliver's school dinner and sugar tax campaigns, to ‘fat shaming’, indigenous Australians, Baywatch, energy drinks, Grandmothers, e-cigarettes, and 'legal highs'.

Five years on from the blog's inception and we have reached the point where people are actively approaching us and generously giving up their time to write posts, rather than having to send in our crack team (the fear inducing) ‘blog working group’ to chase, harry and cajole*.  Could this - and the increased viewing figures - have something to do with the little matter of winning a UK Blog Award last year?  I'd like to think so.

And now, we come to the crux of this post.  It is you, our dear readers and contributors that make the blog a success and it is thanks to you that we won a national award.  So we've decided to go for it again in the UK Blog Awards 2017!

Here comes the shameless plug

The blog has again been entered into two categories: 'Health and Social Care', and 'Education'.  You can vote for us in either category but of course we would really appreciate it if you voted for us in both.

Vote now by following this link

The above link takes you to our profile page on the UK Blog Awards website in which we have chosen two of our favourite posts from 2016:

• From school dinners to sugar tax: Jamie Oliver to the rescue! - Victoria McGowan looks at whether celebrity endorsement has really helped some of the biggest food campaigns.
• England won’t make it past the quarter finals - Clare Bambra analyses the huge health divides across Europe ahead of Euro 2016 (with added infographics, video and social media content).

Voting closes at 10am on Monday 19 December.  One vote per email address.

Hopefully it won't be a maple syrup bottle we'll be holding aloft in celebration come April 2017!

Thank you for your support.

*We do still need your posts!  Please contact me (m.welford@tees.ac.uk) if you would like to write a post for the Fuse blog. Here’s how to take part.

You are now reading the award winning Fuse blog

Posted by Mark Welford and Emma Dorée, Fuse Communications team, Teesside University

You may recall that in January we used this platform to make a shameless plea inviting readers to vote for the Fuse blog in the UK Blog Awards and a month later you may have heard the news that we had been shortlisted in the categories of Education, and Health and Social Care.

Well… (drum roll) …. We only went and won!  That’s right, you are now reading an award winning blog – fancy contributing?!

Last Friday (29 April), we took the Fuse blog monster on a road trip to the big smoke, that there London, where the streets are paved with, well… paving stones to attend the awards ceremony, in eager anticipation.

The awards ceremony was held at the swanky Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster, London and it is safe to say that it more than exceeded our expectations.  The invitation advised that we ‘dress to impress’ but some of the attire on show would have made Lady Gaga and James Bond feel underdressed.

We were welcomed to the event, themed on Roald Dahl’s The BFG with free drinks and canapes (not to mention all the frogsquinkers, buzzwangles, and bugwhiffles we could handle), while we networked with other bloggers and even the Big Friendly Giant himself. The most exciting part however was still to come: the awards ceremony itself.

Tech Reporter Kate Russell (you might know her from BBC show Click) hosted the evening and provided a great commentary, making every blogger there feel very welcome.  Her quirky comments worked to relax the atmosphere and ease frayed nerves.

Each category had two blogs that were highly commended by the judges, followed by an overall winner.  As the Education category came up on screen, we watched in anticipation - the Fuse Blog wasn't announced as Highly Commended - oh well there was still the other category - but then to our surprise as the overall winner of the category!

Having let out a little scream of excitement (and possibly the odd expletive), we went up onto the stage to collect our trophy – a rather lethal looking glass affair - and have our photograph taken with Kate and the judges. It was a surreal moment and very much unexpected with a dash of relief as there were no speeches.

Obligatory award selfie

Once the presentations were over, we were invited to have our photograph taken with the other winners. After which it was time to celebrate properly with more free prosecco (consumed in moderation), posh food and of course a little bit of disco dancing.

This was a great event to be a part of and the venue made it feel even more special and exciting. As the night drew to a close and we collected our certificate and goody bags (with complementary BFG themed dream jars), the fact that we had actually come away as winners had not yet sunk in - it still hasn't now to be honest!

Dream jars - also good for storing ginger biscuits

  
 This is a fantastic achievement for Fuse, as more than two thousands blogs were submitted. There were more than seventy eight thousand votes in total and it is great to think that the Fuse Blog has such a loyal following and a lot of support.

A special thank you must go to Jean Adams who founded the blog in 2011 and to everyone who has contributed over the years.  The posts have sparked great discussion and helped our readers learn what it is really like to work in public health.  Our many writers make the Fuse blog what it is.

We really hope that you will continue to enjoy reading our posts and don’t forget, if you would like to contribute to the Fuse Blog then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

If you would like to discuss a potential blog post or have something already written then please get in touch with Emma Dorée (E.Doree@tees.ac.uk).

The blog monster returns with a shameless plug

Posted by Emma Dorée, Fuse Communications Assistant

Just over a year ago, we wrote about how far the blog had come since it hatched and it’s safe to say that the waistline of the - now fully grown - ravenous blog monster continues to expand.

Feed me, Seymour!

Since its creation in May 2010, the Fuse blog has had just over 167,000 views and we’ve posted 334 blogs – a great achievement, right?!

As a result, we wanted to do something to celebrate this success and to see if we could reward all the contributors that make the Fuse blog what it is, so we have entered the UK Blog Awards 2016!

The blog has been entered into two categories: 'Health and Social Care', and 'Education'. You can vote for us in either category but of course we would really appreciate it if you voted for us in both.

You can vote for the Fuse blog once a day by following this link. We will be encouraging people to do this via our social media feeds but it would be even better if you could spread the word and encourage your friends and family to vote for us too.


Click here to vote for the Fuse blog now

Most importantly however, we still need people to continue sending us blog posts so if you work in public health then please get in touch.

We want to hear about your aims, priorities and challenges or which issues you think need to be brought in to the public eye and debated. Could you give an insight into your role within public health for those not directly involved? Or is there a public health campaign in your area that you wish to promote or a topical news issue or event happening which could coincide with your post?

We post blogs at least once a week and publicise them via our Facebook page and Twitter account. The blog has its own website but of course, you can also view the blogs by visiting the Fuse website.

Email your posts to me (E.Doree@tees.ac.uk) and please let us know if you think there is anything we can do to improve the blog.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the blog so far. You have sparked great discussion and helped our readers learn what it is really like to work in public health, no matter what your role is.

The UK Blog Awards 2016 competition closes at 9pm on the 25 January so don’t forget to keep voting for us as much as possible until then!

Photograph ‘into the mouth’ by Len "Doc" Radin via Flickr.com © 2005: https://www.flickr.com/photos/drurydrama/1079598181