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DUTCH homoeopathic doctor and author Jan de Vries is giving a series of lectures on "the principles of healthy living" in Ireland next week. The venues are the Ferrycarrig Hotel, Wexford on Tuesday, November 26th; Sligo Regional Technical College on Wednesday, November 27th and the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire on Thursday, November 28th. Each lecture begins at 8 p.m. Tickets £5 from local health food stores or by credit card from tel: 01 6262315. All proceeds to the Irish Hospice Movement.

SOUL Survivors is a just published collection of testimonies from people who have overcome mental illness and breakdown in Ireland. The contributors write honestly about their illnesses and roads to recovery with the help of the community mental health movement, Grow. The book is available in bookshops at £4.99. Tel: 056 61624 for more information on Grow.

RHEUMATOLOGIST Dr Maurice Barry will give a public lecture on Coping with the Pain of Arthritis on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. Admission free. Walthea Patterson from the Arthritis Foundation of Ireland is also giving a talk on the same subject in the central library at the ILAC Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1 on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

THE CARI Foundation for sexually abused children is holding its black tie Christmas Ball in Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, on Friday next at 8 p.m. Tel: 01 8308529 for tickets (£60 each or £650 for a table of 12). The organisation counsels children and their parents after child sexual abuse.

"SMOKING Cessation" is the first in a series of free public lectures on smoking and health in the Richard Carmichael Theatre, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin tonight at 8 p.m. Topics to be covered over the following Monday nights include passive smoking: myth or menace and does changing lifestyle help the heart?

THE National Children's Hospital in Harcourt Street, Dublin, is looking for volunteers to participate in its Rudolf Reindeer pencil Christmas fundraising day on Friday. Those interested in helping with street sales or selling boxes to their family and friends should contact the fundraising department at the hospital on tel: 01 4750942 or 4750936.

THE Blue Cross animal welfare society has just introduced a new information pack on its activities. The society, which has been operating in Ireland for more than 50 years, runs mobile animal clinics every week night in the Dublin region. Contact the Blue Cross Office at 8 Dartmouth Terrace, Ranelagh Dublin 6 for more details. Tel: 01 4971709.