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HISTORY OF THE I came into post as Clinical Nurse Specialist in Urology/Oncology in 1999; this covered the care of people diagnosed with prostate, bladder, renal, testicular and penile cancer. At this time, we were strongly encouraged by our Senior Nurse at Kidderminster to start patient participation in the form of support groups. There were lots of changes being made in the care of people diagnosed with cancer as a result of the Calman Hine Report (1995). This was a report commissioned by the government to look at cancer services in the .U.K. and any disparities of cancer services should be addressed by each individual trust to ensure that patients got the same standard of care. One of the recommendations was that there should be Clinical nurse Specialists to look after patients within every speciality. Initially I was given 2 days a week to work as a specialist nurse and was still employed on Ward E4 for the other 3 days. After working with Mr. Baxter-Smith for several months, I realized that not only was prostate cancer the biggest cancer I would be dealing with, in the next few years there would be an explosion in the number of cases, as the baby boomer generation were now 50 plus, and men were living much longer. I suggested to Mr. Baxter-Smith that we have a coffee morning for a few men and their partners recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, and he supported me in this, and he and Mrs. Baxter-Smith attended. The first meeting was held in the Millbrook Suite one Saturday morning, and about 8 men and their partners attended. We were pleased at the interaction and how easily these men talked about their diagnosis. Eventually, we moved to the Post Graduate Centre, with an invited speaker, and I invited several more men to attend. We were very pleased with the attendance level and interaction of people at this meeting, who asked the speaker, Dr. Brown, many interesting questions. The next meeting was held at the Gainsborough Hotel just after the down grading of Kidderminster Hospital. I am not sure of the numbers that attended, possibly about 50, and the speaker was Dr. Churn, who many of you will have met. Feelings were running high about the closure of our services at Kidderminster, and many people stood up to ask questions about future services. It was at this meeting that I decided to ask for committee members to come forward and I approached those people who had been fairly vocal at the meeting. From this meeting came our first committee members :- John Poole Colin Tomkinson Malcolm Pritchard Lyn Bladen. We arranged a lunchtime meeting at the hospital, with Paul Brothwell (Hospital Chaplain), Margaret Webster (Mr. Baxter-Smith’s secretary) and myself. From this meeting we made Paul, the Chairman, Colin, Treasurer and Lyn, Secretary of the group and started work on the first information leaflet about the group and it’s aims. It was also agreed to formally write to Mr. Baxter-Smith to ask him to be the President of the group. It was my job to list all men diagnosed with prostate cancer, present and past and send them an invitation for the next meeting on 23rd April 2000 at the Post Graduate Centre. We invited speakers from an established support group from the south of the country. The prostate support association and, Dr. Udeshi (Radiologist at Kidderminster Hospital). This meeting took place , and on the evening Lyn sat on the door with George Fox and signed up 60 members at £5.00 each for lifetime membership. We were staggered at the response, there were at least 100 people in the Post Graduate Centre that night, and we realized that already we had grown too big for this centre. Derek Sheriff who was the Secretary of the Prostate Support Association was keen to get our members enrolled within a national support group, this would have meant members paying an annual subscription to them as well as enrolling for the local group, it was felt by the committee members that we should continue by ourselves, but liaise with the other groups. We moved to Kidderminster Town Hall for the meetings and we were able to book a Bar/coffee facility, as well as borrow equipment for presentations. This move enabled us to expand our horizons and think big about the amount of people who might or could attend the meetings. We continued with a range of excellent speakers, Major Ronald Ferguson, Rohy Nixon, Richard Taylor M.P.), Jon Peters, Alan Doherty, Dr. Trevor Cole, Dr. Simon Berrow, Mike Vincent, Ed Doolan , Colin Youngjohns, Chairman of Kidderminster Harriers. We also gained three more members on our committee, Noel Shakespeare, Barbara Pugh and Derek Harrington. Noel and his wife Margaret work as a team organising the food at our town hall meetings, selling raffle tickets and working tirelessly to get Newsletters out to our members. Barbara organizes wonderful coach trips, but most importantly with the support of Paul and myself, formed the widows group, which has done some amazing work with ladies, who may have felt very isolated after the death of their husbands/partners, the first meeting was held on 17th March 2003. Derek came on board at PR man and did some amazing promotional work for the group, contacting the media with information about the group’s activities. The committee felt that we should be keeping all our members up to date with events and also anything topical about prostate cancer, and John Poole agreed in 2001 to start a newsletter and the name Supporter was agreed by the committee. This newsletter is both informative and amusing, and has kept members up to date with events that are taking place on behalf of the group and by the group. In 2003, we applied and received charity status. The background to this was months of painstaking work from Colin, Paul and Lyn to draw up an acceptable constitution and present the case for charity status. Having this status has enabled the Treasurer to handle the funds much more effectively. Fund-raising is mainly done on a voluntary basis, by members, relative of members and people who support what the group is trying to achieve. Golf tournaments, sponsored walks, quizzes, brings and buys, car book sales concerts, garden parties, etc. Funds are spent on giving members free coach trips, transport to and from meeting, help with equipment and nursing care in the case of terminally ill members and financing PSA testing. The group also donates money to the Millbook Suite at Kidderminster Hospital, Kemp Hospice, Snowdrop Foundation (Wolverhampton), and to help purchase equipment at Kidderminster Treatment Centre for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. In recent years, we have lost Malcolm Prichard who worked hard to keep in touch with the North American group for sufferers of Prostate Cancer US TOO. Margaret Webster left after one year and Lyn Bladen and Derek Harrington stepped down as committee members, after several years on committee, both are still members of the group. We were lucky to get Frank Carter who took over as Treasurer and John Banner who took over they role of Secretary. One of our aims was to raise awareness of prostate cancer and to get men talking about this possible disease, as well as other diseases affecting the prostate gland. Mr. Baxter-Smith, on behalf of the group has given talks about the prostate gland to may groups of people We have always felt that the group had the strength and commitment to stand alone as a solo group, and to date this has proved to be the right stance for us so far. This has kept our membership subscription down to a minimum £5.00 once only charge for all our members and I am sure this is a factor in the numbers that actually join and stay with the group. Mary Symons. 21st. April 2006. Please click a box to move around the website or click HERE to go back to the site home page
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