More than 40 exhibitors are expected at the Club Old Bar Seniors Week Health Expo being held at Club Old Bar on Wednesday, April 11 as part of the NSW Seniors Festival.

It is the third time the Old Bar Men’s Shed has hosted the annual event and they have been working hard to plan an informative, free event for all seniors.

“It is an exhbition to allow people to see what services are available within the health and wellbeing industry in their senior years,” said expo organiser John Macartney.

Exhibitors will cover all areas of health including hearing, retirement living, home health services and mental health support.

Guest speakers include a representative of NSW Police who will talk about domestic violence in relation to elder abuse.

Stuart Torrance of Alzheimers Australia will be on hand to raise awareness of dementia.

Mr Torrance offers talks at Men’s Sheds around NSW and has helped develop a book tailored around the organisation, ‘Your shed and dementia – A manual’.

“It is very important we destigmatise dementia and look at it as a normal degenerative brain disease,” he told Fairfax Media.

“It’s something that needs to be challenged and embraced from a community perspective.”

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Also having a stall at the expo will be a number of local community groups such as Probus and Lions.

“Clubs such as Probus help remove social isolation,” said John.

One such group will even be available to experience first hand.

A sewing group meets at Club Old Bar on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week with their regular meet up coinciding with expo day.

“They’ll be in the back room, hard at it doing what they do,” assures John.

“Anyone who wants to see them can join in too.”

More than 100 people attended the expo in 2017 and John and the team at the Old Bar Men’s Shed are hopeful of a great turnout again this year.

“We’ve learnt a lot,” he said of organising such an event for three years.

“Last year was chock solid which caught us out.”

As a result of the tight  squeeze last year more room has been allocated within Club Old Bar for the 2018 expo.

“There will be a lot more space so people can move around,” said John.