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 2019

Kicking off the New Year with some great news, our collection day at Tesco raised an amazing £1000!  Yes it was a long day, but certainly worth it and really noticeable that when our entertainers were performing, the coins fair flew into the buckets.  A huge thank you to them and of course our collectors. Rebecca Relf PHD student from Sussex University came along to update us on her paper asking the question Do breast cancer survivors respond differently during exercise to heat? and asked for 5  volunteers to help her with the next stage. This would involve meeting the team in Eastbourne and taking part and being monitored in 4 sessions of gentle exercise under controlled temperature of 25 degrees and 35 degrees. One very interesting fact that came out in her talk is that statistics show that if you exercise regularly you decrease your recurrance of breast cancer by 40%! All this talk of exercise prompted Janet to tell us how her fitness sessions with group members were going.  These have been a real benefit not only physically, but mentally, helping to increase self esteem and confidence.  The first lots of sessions having been such a success, and having had a boost to our funds at Christmas, we can now happily say that these sessions will be continuing for those who would like to take part. Other snippets of info for you • Elizabeth has managed to obtain a £50 voucher for us for Bodiam Boating Station. A special draw has been organised to maximise fundraising on this and is open to members until May this year • Someone recommended World First Travel Insurance, apparently they had to feel in quite a detailed questionnaire, but it was worthwhile as they got their insurance at a very competitive rate. • We’ve heard that The Conquest are no longer offering a pocketing service for bras - we are looking into alternatives   

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 or mail stories to: 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.

May Meeting 2018

Another super evening together tonight - well except tea/coffee debacle! Lovely to meet two new members too. Linda and Janet from the Bexhill Macmillan fundraising team came along to tell us a bit about their fundraising - which all gets spent locally, not put into the huge Macmillan pot! It was a reciprocal visit. Gloria, Pam and I spoke to their group in April as they were keen to hear of a local group funded by Macmillan, and they were keen to share how they raised their funds and to give us details of local fundraising events that we might like to attend or share with others. London Fashion Show - Tickets are not on sale at the moment, but are likely to be anytime now. If you would like to join the group for this fabulous day out, please contact Sheila asap. Once those tickets go on sale, they are usually gone in 48hrs!! Cream Tea - Gloria has now booked this for 3.00pm, Saturday 23rd June at Ashburnham Place. Please let Gloria know if you are interested as she will need an idea of numbers - at the moment it's booked for 30. This is open to all group members old and new, and those who either physically attend meetings or belong via the Facebook page. You can show your interest on Facebook or ring Gloria. Nicola Jane - Mastectomy wear Chichester. We are still working out the logistics of this trip, organising transport, a suitable time for the Nicola Jane team etc. Our best option transport wise at the moment would mean a Saturday, within the next 3 months. If you are interested, please again contact us via the Facebook page, email or ring Gloria. Data Protection - with new Data Protection regulations coming into play this month, you will all receive a letter from me, please tick and return asap. The letter will contain the info (data) I hold on you at the moment. Please tick the appropriate boxes to show whether you wish to share this info with the rest of the group ie on contact list OR whether you wish me to keep this info for admin use only. If you want to share all your details, please remember to tick each box under Group heading. If for instance if you just tick your name and tel number under the Group heading, that is all we will publish. As clear as mud? Well hopefully it will make sense when you receive the letter. Well having got that boring bit out of the way. Anyone got any ideas for our stall at the Rural Past Times Fair at Pestalozzi Village this August ? One idea is a pink tombola - pretty good one I think, but maybe someone has another idea other than a tombola.

June Meeting 2018

Well another super evening tonight girls - except for the tea/coffee urn debacle, for which I apologise. Had tried to sort it out with The Pelham and in fact they had set the urns for drinks at 7.45 as agreed, so that's when we'll have it next month. Two very interesting guests tonight; Jan Cutting RVA (Rother Voluntary Association) who was very pleased to get your feedback. Let's hope the platform that that they hope will be brought into the UK will work and be able to help support those in employment who are struggling with cancer. I have subsequently emailed Jan and if she has any more info to give us, we will get it out to you all. And then Janet Green, a personal trainer who herself had breast cancer back in 2004. Janet has recently been working alongside Pam to provide classes for us. Feeling passionately about fitness after treatment, Janet has been in discussion with Summerfields to organise a 6 week course for members of the group. Janet will be sending more details about this later. Cream Tea - Ashburnham Place 23rd June. Gloria has now collected names and will be confirming the numbers this week. "Tea time" is 2pm, but of course you are welcome to arrive early, or stay later to wander around the grounds taking in the lovely scenery. Gloria was able to hand out several of the lymphodeoma "beany" bags that she showed us at the last meeting and has since obtained. Not sure if she has any left - but we could order more if anyone wants them. Anyone who has paid their £10 deposit for the fashion show, now needs to pay their final £57.50 to Sheila who has kindly organised and paid for all the tickets. A special thanks Sheila, when you are going through such a tough time with your Mum at the moment. As we only have half a dozen names down for the trip to Nicola Jane, it seems more appropriate to pay for the train fare for members who wish to go, rather than hire a minibus. So it would probably be best if you organised that date between yourselves. Names on the list were Heather, Diane, Paula, Johanna, Carol and Pam. When you step off the train Nicola Jane is about 100 yards away so very easy to get to. If you also wished you could walk up the road into the town for a bite to eat or a cuppa and make a real day of it! Last but not least - 1066 Pink Ladies will again be running a tombola stall at the Rural Past Times event in August. This year our theme is PINK! There is only the July meeting to make a collection of items before the event - so girls, take a look around, it may be a bottle of pink pop, some pink sweets, a pink soap, just keep your eyes peeled for pink! (As Carol said pity it's not after October as there's a lot of pink around then!) If you can't find anything pink, then why not wrap it in pink!

July Meeting 2018

A lovely meeting again tonight girls, quite a number, considering it was semi-final night (what a blow that score was!). With no speaker we had a chance to do a "round robin" introducing ourselves to two new members, Jean and Helena. Janet had brought along an interesting article from The Times with information on Travel Insurance which she thought she'd like to share. It says: "Specialist insurers can offer more comprehensive cover, taking in the specifics of your condition into account when calculating premiums, and may employ a medical expert to assess the likelihood that you will need care abroad. These include All Clear MIA and Towergate Insurance." "Those who have suffered cancer should consider Insure Cancer which says it provides cover for active, metastatic and terminal cancer. Sufferers have to be clinically stable and deemed fit to travel by their consultant. Freedom Insurance is another option, although it is unable to cover people waiting for treatment. Cancer Research UK says you should be prepared for the rate to be higher if you have finished treatment recently. The longer you have been cancer free the more prices should fall." Although she wasn't present this evening Sheila wanted me to pass on her grateful thanks to everyone who has sent cards, and to say that if anyone is interested her mother's thanksgiving service will be at Beulah Baptist Church on Tuesday 24th July at 3pm and everyone is welcome, refreshments afterwards in the church. For those of you who have tickets for the London Fashion Show, we think we will have funds to cover the train fare for you all, if not Heather has been checking out the group rate which works out at £16.05 each. For those of you on our Facebook page, you'll know that Cath was asking if anyone was on the Add- Aspirin trial, well she has decided to take part and explained it all to us. You can take a look at their website for info. We collected some items for our Pink Tombola stall in August - but are looking for more contributions, if you have anything, please bring along to our next meeting 8th August. Other than that, we enjoyed treatments from our therapists and had a good chat.

August Meeting 2018

Some discussion tonight on "living with cancer"; we all of us experience the effects of it, anxiety, depression, fear, low self-esteem - but it's great to know that at least we are all able to meet together to share these feelings with others who understand. We are lucky too to have links with professional help through The Sarah Lee Trust and therapists who really do have a positive impact on our lives. As if to reinforce this, Janet Green came along to talk about the sessions that she is going to provide starting on 4th September. She will be putting her own post on here for you to read with final details. These fitness/well being sessions have taken a while to pull together, but I know those who take part will benefit tremendously - speaking to Janet later on she told me that this is something that Miss Shah fully endorses and has encouraged her to set up. We also heard that Sarah Lee Trust is holding a special, all day session next Wednesday at Powdermill Woods, Aug 15th, covering emotions, mindfulness and wellbeing - if you are interested, give Pam a ring and she'll put your name down to attend. Don't forget, this Saturday we have our pink tombola stall at Rural Past Times event at Pestalozzi Village, Sedlescombe; it's a great family day out. If you are interested in helping, give Pat Partridge a ring.

September Meeting 2018

Another month, another meeting, always different, always enjoyable. Tonight we talked about some of the fundraising opportunities that have fallen into place for the group, as we can't guarantee what we'll receive this year from Macmillan. First of all 2 events next week on Saturday 22nd September Gemma and her sister are organising their annual Coffee Morning for Macmillan, but this year Gemma would like to donate half of the money to Pink Ladies, So if you are free between 10.00am and 1.00pm, pop along to Sidley Working Men's Club, Holliers Hill TN40 2DD ( about 6 or 7 doors away from The Pelham) and support her. That same day, but in the evening, 7.30 - 10.30 is our Barn Dance at St Stephen's Church Hall, Down Road, Bexhill TN39 4HA. Bring your own drinks and picnic supper - some people like to get together with some friends and make it a grand affair, or alternatively, just bring along some nibbles. Guaranteed fun - even if you don't dance. Come along support us and have an enjoyable evening. Tickets available on the door. See our Special Events page for more info.

December 20th, Collecting at Tesco’s, Bexhill.

Do you now any musicians, singers? Do you belong to a choir? On Thursday 20th December we are looking for entertainers to enhance our collection day at Tesco’s, Ravenside. Tesco have given us this great opportunity to collect for our group, but advised us that we should make the most of the day (and make more money) by providing entertainment. If you know of anyone, please ask if they'd give their time to support our group - they will not be performing outside Tesco, but inside and we're looking for people to fill slots throughout the day. We already have 11.00 am - 2.00 pm covered and 6.30 - 7.00 pm. Obviously we'll also be looking for volunteer collectors too! Maybe you'd like to get your family or friends involved, children or grandchildren - people love seeing little ones collecting. Now onto other things: Our podiatrist Naomi was unable to be with us tonight, and will not be available for treatments for a few weeks, as she has been in hospital for an op. She says will let us know when she's back in action again. Those of you going to the London Fashion Show, 4th October - train tickets are all organised and paid for, all you need to do is meet at Battle station at 9:30. Don't be late, the train leaves shortly after that! Sheila Boniface has all the info if you have any questions. Everyone who attended our new fitness and well-being sessions with Janet Green thought they were fabulous. We will be running another set of sessions after these finish, and hopefully more after that providing we have the finances. Sally Lee, mother of Sarah Lee, is looking to set up a group for lymphodema sufferers. If anyone would like to be involved with this, please contact Pam. A couple of the local lymphodema nurses will be joining us at our next meeting, to give us the latest updates.

October Meeting 2018

What a wonderful meeting this month, 28 of us plus the nurses from the Lympoedema Service. First, welcome to 4 new members, I know it's very hard to come on your own to a new group but as you hopefully felt last night, you really are amongst ladies who know how it is and understand. One of the new members came from Tunbridge Wells, we were her nearest group!  So all the more important to keep our name out there UPCOMING EVENTS. November 17th. We have stall at the Sara Lee Christmas Fete. We are running a (paper) Gift Bag Tombola and ask if you can please put a gift, of any description, for a child, man, or woman in a paper Christmas or gift Bag and bring to the next meeting, or drop off in Bexhill at Pat's, Gloria’s in Hastings, or ask Pam and she will collect – you have our numbers. We already have some leftover items from the Rural Times event and a bag of gifts from Gemma's family (thank you) but we still need more. Thursday 20th December. Tescos  Ravenside, Bexhill have kindly given us this date to use the store to promote the group and make a collection. We will be inside the foyer,  Pat has purchased pink collection buckets so please consider if you can spare even half an hour to come along and help, - otherwise it's going to be a long day for a few of us.  A rota has been drawn up, but time didn't allow it to be put out last night. Pat has organised different musical entertainment throughout the day that will hopefully enhance the event and encourage people to give more! Group Finances. To date we have had no official confirmation of any grant money for the coming year, there have been several e-mails from our  Macmillan contact who is working hard on our behalf to secure some funding, but it looks highly unlikely we will have such a generous grant as other years, so the need to self-fund is important; although the strength of the group, the support we have given each other in the past, and will in the future, can’t be measured in a financial way, the lovely therapies we have, the venue etc. are a real bonus, and one we want to continue. Gemma held a coffee morning recently sharing the takings between Macmillan and Pink Ladies, we received a wonderful £250 pounds. Thank you Gemma. Claire Conely has made some beautiful cards she is selling for our funds at £1 each; see the information table at meetings for these really pretty cards. Fashion Show. Heather gave a brief account of the wonderful day nine members of our group had at the Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show in London. Always a fabulous day out, and hosted by Claudia Winkleman this year, the fashion show has become a tradition within the group, so start saving now for next year! Physical. This has been an enormous success. All four ladies who attended this course thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The next course, led by Janet Green who is a fully qualified sports instructor, and also a member of Pink Ladies, will start on 23rd October with six, one hour sessions starting at 9.30. There is room for one more in the next session so get in touch if you want to lose a few pounds and get fitter. Janet has managed to arrange a deal with the gym manager that gives any member of Pink Ladies, who attended the last sessions, the opportunity to join Freedom Leisure for £26/per month with no joining fee, so a good deal. Nutritional Education Isabelle Endreo is in the process of starting a cooking /nutrition course in conjunction with The Sarah Lee Trust, details to follow. Lymphoedema Education We had a very informative visit by the lymphoedema specialist nurses Jane Board and Julia Anderson, both very experienced in their knowledge of lymphoedema. They are not renewing their contract with the NHS and are going to set up in private practice in the South East, which includes our areas; they plan to do home visits as well as a clinic in Eastbourne. Their main aim is to identify potential areas where problems can occur and to focus on prevention. They are very keen to educate us in the treatment and prevention of problems, and although they gave a very good introduction of the condition last night I felt we could have talked on for a great deal longer. We really would appreciate your views on this, as we need to get back to them with your thoughts etc. We want to know how you feel we could be helped by them. As we understand it, the cost of a single one to one appointment would be in the region of £70, but as an average of two appointments would  be needed  the overall charge for them both would be £100. These are just approximate costings, but this is a consideration we need to think about.  We also wondered if a three monthly visit and information evening might be appropriate, where we could get group discount, so ladies feedback PLEASE.

November Meeting 2018

Big meeting again this month, with several new members; We started the meeting with some guests from Sarah Lee Trust, They explained how and why the charity was formed, what services they provided, that they need £300,000 a year to keep going, and therefore the need for fundraising and volunteers - maybe some of you were moved to consider helping out. Several of the group mentioned how they had either enjoyed their session at Summerfields, or were enjoying taking part in the current 6 weeks sessions, feeling much fitter, healthier, and more confident in themselves If you are interested in joining in one of these 6 week courses, please let Gloria know - also let her know if you'd like to take part but are only available in the evenings, as Janet is trying to organise that too. Pat reported on our current finances, which were looking quite healthy. Rob (who looks after our finances) has calculated that to keep running in the way we are at the moment we need approx £3000. We have been lucky enough to have received a grant from Macmillan in previous years which has covered nearly all our needs, this year however, that will be cut as it is no longer Macmillan's policy to provide money for therapists. However, we've all pulled together and over the last few months we've managed to raise quite a bit for our funds. Barn dance - £450 Gemma's coffee morning - £250 Dance Moves organised a retiring collection after their recent show - £80 Touch of Glamour, Little Common, end of season sale - £185 Gift Bag Tombola – £130 In addition we've received some great prizes for fundraising from so many of you, with special thanks to Elizabeth who in addition to arranging several others has managed to get us our recent £50 voucher for the Bodiam Boating Station. Thank you everyone. Sarah made a particular point in thanking Sheila and Heather for the lovely day out they had arranged for the London Fashion Show, to the group for funding the train fare and Janet Green for the fitness sessions. Next month at our Christmas meeting we will be drawing our 50/50 draw. At the moment there are 74 squares filled, so the lucky winner will receive £37 - but there's still a chance to fill in as many of the other squares as you'd like too before we call it. Janet is also trying to arrange a fundraiser at Tesco Hastings, involving keeping us fit at the same time - more about that in the New Year. Our December meeting, rather than our normal format, usually has more of a party atmosphere. We provide a few nibbles and play a few silly games, nothing to make anyone uncomfortable (more along the Pass the Parcel type games). We hope you'll be able to come along - remember, you're always welcome even if we haven't seen you for a while.

December Meeting 2018

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 2019