Meeting Feedback

This feedback will help members unable to attend

a meeting keep up with what's been

happening, and give non-members an idea of

what we do at our meetings.

January meeting 2018 

It was really good to see those who were able to make it tp outr January meeting. Although we were just a few, we met with Rob, who is going to handle our finances for the time being, and had a good chat about Zolodronic AQcid, which some of our members are on.  I have since emailed Jenny Glendenning as suggested and will bring her reply along on Feb 14th - our next meeting.

February meeting 2018

Hope that those of you were out for that special meal or evening celebrating Valentine's Day had a wonderful time. Great evening for us too, lots of chatting (of course) and we covered quite a bit of ground. We had a great email from Jenny Glendenning re Adjuvant Biphosphonates along with some information, which we discussed in detail. following our last meeting. Gloria thought it would be interesting to find out how many of those among us were on them - something for the next meeting maybe? Institute of Cancer Research want some volunteers to help them raise awareness of important advances against breast cancer and the need for more research. Unable to send a representative to come to one of our meetings, we received information by post which will be available to read at our next meeting or alternatively go to www.icr.ac.uk/shareyourstory  if you are interested or mail stories stories@icr.ac.uk Afternoon tea, seemed to be favoured by everyone as our annual outing - several venue suggestions were made and we'll be interested to hear anyone else's ideas too - so get your thinking caps on! Look forward to seeing you next month - Mar 14th

March Meeting 2018

Our speaker this month was Kathy Harmer from Touch of Glamour, Little Common - she brought along a few wigs, explained which were the best one to buy, gave us tips on wig care, but probably most importantly explained help with finances when obtaining one. So many of our members have used her service - we would definitely recommend her. We also discussed a summer social in June - afternoon tea at The Orangery, Ashburnham Place, which Gloria is going look into. Happy Easter all - see you April 11th.

April Meeting 2018

Stevie Collins, (yes some of you will remember that name from Radiology department) now Cranio-Sacral therapist, working both privately and for Sarah Lee Trust, came along to explain her therapy. She explained that we all go through knocks in life, both physical and emotional, all of which impact on our body and system. This therapy works by her laying her hands gently on the body (no massage or prodding) which in turn release tensions throughout the body, the effect is that it relieves pain and restores the body. The main aim of her talk was to explain what the therapy entailed, how it works so that we can offer this to our group. We have also been very lucky to receive another £200 cheque from a local social group who wish to support us regularly - isn't that fantastic? We are planning a trip to Nicola Jane, who specialise in mastectomy wear in Chichester. We will organise transport for those who would like to go along, look at their range of clothing - be measured up etc - all funded, Please let us know if you are interested. Afternoon Tea - an afternoon tea has been booked at Ashburnham Place. Gloria will be filling us in on the details soon. London Fashion Show - a reminder that Sheila Boniface needs to know numbers and £10 deposit by the end of the month. Tickets go on sale at the beginning of May and last year sold out within 48hrs!! Again we have some grant money towards this trip, which we decided tonight would be best spread out across everyone attending - that way everyone gets a discount! If however, you would like to join members of the group for this event, but are unable to finance it, please speak to either Pam, Gloria or myself confidentially and as with everything else we will try and arrange something for you. Which leads me to say that are in the fortunate position at the moment to have funds in our coffers, this has been given to us to help our members out where possible, so please don't be afraid to approach us if you have anything that we can help you with. One thing that we did discuss tonight is timings at our meetings. We all know that it is important that we have time to talk and support each other, but are aware that when we have visitors this isn't always happening. So we thought we'd give this a go:- Start meeting at 7pm, quick intro if we have a guest - their "talk" to last 20 - 30 mins allowing us to have time for questions and anything else we might like to discuss. Then coffee/tea and time to chat at 8.00. Someone suggested we didn't have as many speakers, or had them every other month - however there are others, especially the newer members who have said how much they have benefited from the people we've had along - lets see how it works out.

2017

May Meeting 2017

We had a very busy and entertaining evening attended by 20 group members. We welcomed Linda Maggs to the group who said she felt welcome and enjoyed the evening. Debbie Winchester (looking gorgeous as ever) gave a very enlightening talk on the virtues of exercise and diet choices, we did a range of exercises that she felt was in everyone's interests to try to maintain even on a reduced scale, depending, of course, on the stage of treatment we could be going through; the bottom line was to do anything that kept mobility and range of arm movement going. We did the draw for the 3 free fashion show tickets and the lucky trio have been informed. To date we have heard no news from the show organisers (watch this space). Janet, our super treasurer, reminded us that if we are not lucky enough to get another grant we will need to do some serious fund raising. Thinking caps on girls! The cream tea is being finalised this week. Details are: Sunday 21st May 2017, at Powder Mills Hotel, Battle from 3.30 to 5.30. No dieting allowed that day!

June Meeting 2017

Sorry, no feedback available for this meeting.

July Meeting 2017

Our meeting last week was well attended by 22 pink ladies, including two new members, we welcomed Sandra Christie and Maggie Sweeney, both ladies were able to enjoy some therapy by Amanda. We learnt some interesting facts re transport to Maidstone, one of the group contacted Maidstone Hospital direct and asked how she could get there, explaining she had no means of getting to appointments. They arranged transport from Hastings to all of her radiotherapy appointments. When she told the Breast Care Nurses they couldn't believe her luck - I think the moral of the story is to try Maidstone instead of our local team. The joy of having so many members means some of the group have to participate in group discussions from behind a pillar! Not very pleasant, especially as it was one of the new members this month. Our intrepid explorer, aka Pam, sussed out an additional room leading off the current one and thought it would make a less cluttered space to begin our meetings when we are all involved, we can then move back to the other room for our small group chats, let's give it a try for the August meeting and see how it goes. The grant money we have been awarded for the coming year means we can afford another therapist, Pam is sorting this out and we hope to have someone in situ in September. We are delighted that Amanda and Naomi have agreed to continue to come along to meetings next year; members who have taken advantage of the therapy have all said it was very beneficial to them. On our information table there now lives a black note book for you to PLEASE comment on the therapy you may have had, any speakers you might like to invite, the good and possible not so good points about our meetings. The group can only survive and grow by input from those using it, I for one always feel a tremendous boost from seeing everyone and while long past my treatment, still have a strong bond with old and new group members. No need to sign your name in the book if you don't want to; just use it as you feel appropriate. One or two of our Ladies are having a tough time at the moment, for various reasons, and it's imperative we support them in any way we can, a phone call is sometimes a tremendous help when it all seems to be going wrong. In September Isabelle is giving us a talk and taster on the value of good nutrition, and the choices we can make to improve our diets. I look forward to that. There are some books the group has purchased from the Haven on the information table, please feel free to borrow them. Someone suggested we get some "alert cards " printed and laminated to carry in our purse that warn of our compromised arm, we have a sample that was provided by the hospital and will use that as our template. Shelia and Pat are running the bottle Tombola stall at Pestalozzi Rural Times Fayre on Sat 12th and Sun 13th August in aid of group funds; please help if you can even for an hour or two. Bring ANY bottles you can donate for the stall to our next meeting, they don't have to be alcoholic, they can be sauce, perfume, vinegar - anything in a bottle. If we can't manage to man a stall both days we'll just do just the one. Sheila will have information at the August meeting. Janet is standing down as our Treasurer at the end of this month and we are fortunate that Diane McBrinn has agreed to take over this thankless task. Janet has asked that if you have any outstanding bills, or cheque's you haven't yet paid into the bank (who's that rich) to please do so as soon as possible Janine is hoping to be included on a trial for a new type of mamogram machine being tried out at the Royal Marsden we hope she will be successful and can keep us informed of its virtues. Anne is going to try and get some up to date information as to when we can expect the Radiotherapy unit to be up and running in Eastbourne... that would make an amazing difference. One of our Ladies is traveling to Pembury for treatment, not financed by East Sussex but by Kent. It's comforting to know that somehow our consultant's manage to get us the appropriate treatments, we are very lucky. I've probably missed vital "stuff” from the meeting and I'm sorry if I have but I've done my best, aided by a glass of wine.

August Meeting 2017

Sorry, no feedback available for this meeting.

September Meeting 2017

See our Special Events page

November Meeting 2017

We were a cosy group of 13 and so were able to chat and give the usual support to each other. Unfortunately during the course of the meeting Diane our current treasurer advised us she was having to stand down for the time being, we hope she will pick up the purse strings in the near future. Lack of volunteers to fill the post meant we have enlisted the help of a gentleman well qualified in managing accounts and is happy to do so on our behalf; he will not be attending meetings and will liase with a member of the group prior to meeting days. Christmas is coming (oh yes it is!) We will be having our Christmas Party at the next meeting, we will be having party food and games, so glad rags on girls, don't eat before you come! All being well we hope to continue with at least two therapists throughout the coming year as most members have benefited from a treatment, we thank them for their support. X Pat Partridge rattled away loaded with booze for the fund raising tombola stall held yesterday, I'm sure we will hear the results in due course. Thank you Pat. x Last but not least we were joined by Janet Green a lady who Miss Shah suggested should talk to us. She has had breast cancer surgery followed by chemotherapy, radiotherapy and reconstruction. Following this she became focused on becoming as fit as possible resulting in qualifying as a personal trainer, her objective is to be able to provide a small group of ladies a personalised training session at Summer fields sports centre and hopefully at Freedom Leisure in Bexhill. Pam will be meeting with Janet and management of Summerfields and will be reporting to us in due course. Love and Health to you all Gloria

December Meeting 2017

What a smashing evening yesterday, delicious food, great fun, lots of laughter - what better could we ask for? For all those who couldn't make it we’d like to  wish you all a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year. See you January 10th 2018