www.theisleofwightprostatecancersupportgroup.org.uk

PRESS RELEASEIsle of Wight Prostate Cancer Support Group

On 19th October the IW Prostate Cancer Support Group with the Ryde Lions in partnership, organised their 3rd PSA blood test event for men on the Isle of Wight aged 45 years and older. 400 men had blood taken by five phlebotomists from St Mary’s Hospital and of these men 40 have elevated PSA results, needing some sort of medical follow up. This early intervention will allow early treatment and an enhanced possibility of success for these men to make a good recovery.

On behalf of these men, their family and friends, we would like to thank all those who supported this event including:

■ The Governors and Principal of Ryde Academy for the use of the school as our venue, and the Caretaker for his assistance in setting up and cleaning up after the event.

■ Paul Davies and his wife for covering conveying the blood samples to QA Hospital and Wight Link for donating free return passage for our courier to Portsmouth.

■ Island Environmental Hygiene for donating the Sharps buckets and disposal of the needles and

Marvic for printing all the necessary paperwork essential to perform this event.

■ The retail outlets – Busy Bee, Co-operative Freshwater, Tesco Ryde for allowing us to promote this event to the local community in their foyers.

■ The Sign Shop for producing all the traffic direction signs, banners and placards, essential to enable men to find the venue.

■ Special thanks must go to PCaSO on the mainland for their support in setting up the online booking system which enabled the smooth running of appointments on the day.

■ People Matter IW and the Womens’ Institute for their promotion of this event via their social media sites, and all other sites that picked up on the event and advertised it. Also the 30 plus volunteers working on the day, without whom the event could not have run.

■ Island Magazines, the Observer and County Press for their co-operation in promoting this event in their publications.

Our thanks also to the Daisy Trust, Seaview Yacht Club, The Island Savoyards, Rotary Club Ryde, Pit-Stop, Spectrum Property Care Ltd Ryde, Newport Football Club, and Jewsons for their generous donations and support.

Newsletter November 2019

So the results of our latest PSA event, run in partnership with Ryde Lions, and held at Ryde Academy are out, see elsewhere for result.

Newport Football Club continues to support us at selected matches which we are very grateful for.

Vic, Roger and Trevor attended the Black Cat Blues Club, and Vic, Angela and myself met with the Lions for a “washup” meeting about the PSA event.

Tony Sallabanks continues to encourage companies to make donations to the Group and assist me in our awareness campaign using banners and posters.

Roy’s efforts with the calendar will conclude at the Christmas Dinner and Roz and Mick’s efforts with the continuing saga of Consultants at St Mary’s is also reported later.

We are so fortunate to have such hard-working and proactive Trustees. Our Social media site run by Tony Wheatley, and Sharon’s Suggestion box out at the members’ meetings are more indication of their efforts.

I hope to see you at the St Mary’s Hospital Awareness event during Wednesday 27th November, or at the Members’ meeting that evening at 6.15pm at the County Cricket Club.

Alan Taylor

Chairman’s Chat

Registered Charity 1173916

Quote – UnquoteDon’t be afraid of making mistakes, just be afraid of not learning from them.

When nothing goes right – go left.

Be a voice, not an echo.

Things left unsaid stay with us forever.

Your existence gives me hope.

www.theisleofwightprostatecancersupportgroup.org.uk

The meeting with the Lions after the successful PSA event, was an opportunity for new ideas to improve the next event in October 2020. The donation taken at the event amounted to £1780 which was shared between the two groups. The 400 men tested on the day had received their results despite a slight problem with the “Hotmail” email provider. 40 men had raised PSA levels and were advised to contact their local GP’s. Numerous emails congratulating and thanking both groups for organising this event were read to the meeting and plans made for our future events to be held at Ryde Academy. Our thanks to Vic and Angela for attending the meeting and John Smith our contact with Ryde Lions.

Lions “wash up” Meeting – PSA Event

I will report on the PSA Conference being held by GFCT in Birmingham, in our next Newsletter.

PSA Event 19 October 2019 Survey results

The PSA Event “dispatch riders”

Tony Sallabanks continues to put the hours in gathering new donors for our Group. His latest acquisition is Howden’s who have agreed to donate £500 for us to purchase a generator to enable us to improve our stall at Shows next year and our float for the Carnivals.

We gratefully accepted an invitation to another Newport Football Club match, held at East Cowes, Vics ground, since Newport is in between grounds at the moment. Vic and I set up the stall in the club house with the MAN standing outside in the pouring rain. Despite the weather, the collection bucket was passed around at half time and £44.05 was collected. Our thanks for the continued opportunity to attend Newport FC football matches and spread the word about the IWPCSG.

Prizes for the Annual Christmas Dinner Raffle are also wanted, and the Calendar Project run by Roy comes to a close at the Dinner with the draw for the bottle of Gin. There are a very few calendars left which can be purchased from Roy, and we must thank Conrad Gauntlett for his sponsorship for the

Fund Raising

Roz, who attends the Patient Partnership meetings and has contacts in the hospital, gives regular reports to the Trustees which I am passing on here.

St Mary’s Hospital Consultant Saga

Black Cat Blues ClubOur promotional stall, together with Vic, Roger and Trevor attending an open mic afternoon at the Anchor Inn in Cowes on Sunday 10th November. The Friday before, Simon Clarke the co-organiser of this event had, with notes from me, been interviewed on IW Radio, and had explained what we did as a Group, mentioning all our activities and awareness events, quote a coup for our Group. The event itself was very well attended, very loud and without the possibility this time of us talking using the mic, difficult to get our point over. When we return in March for a repeat event, I will endeavour for us to have mic time so that we can reinforce the IW Radio interview time. I hope everyone’s ear drums have recovered!

Future EventsWednesday 27th November Promotional stall at Awareness Event, St Mary’s Hospital 9.30am – 2pm.

Members’ meeting at the County Cricket Club Pavilion, Blackwater 6.15pm.

Monday 2nd December – Tuesday 31st December Christmas Tree Festival at the IW Pearl,

www.theisleofwightprostatecancersupportgroup.org.uk

Calendar and the bottle of Gin for the final draw.

Can I remind everyone about the Brighstone Christmas Tree Festival. Our tree put up by Roz and Mick will be at the IW Pearl and can be seen from 2 – 31 December, definitely worth a visit over the Christmas period.

Brighstone. Come and support the event and see our Christmas Tree.

Thursday 5th December Promotional stall at St Mary’s Hospital 1 – 4pm.

Thursday 12th December Christmas Dinner at the Chequers Inn, Rookley 8 – 9.30pm.

No Members’ meeting in December, see you on Thursday 23rd January.

Last years Christmas Dinner at the ‘White Hart’

Dr Eslamian has taken over from Dr Boote and is covering his appointments at St Mary’s Hospital. Everyone reports on her compassionate and friendly manner, and she has a contract at the hospital for 6 months. Unfortunately she lives in Guildford and has a young family, so there is no guarantee that she will continue after her 6 month contract. There is a country-wide shortage of clinical Oncologists, and so advertising for them has been expanded from the UK to Europe. Southampton has recently opened a dedicated department for Prostate Cancer patients and this could mean even more difficulties in recruiting personnel.

Mike Sizer from Wessex Cancer is attending our January Members’ Meeting and it has been suggested that a Q and A session starting at 6.30 pm that evening might help in gaining more information about this matter.

Roz Dennison

You may have noticed a Suggestion Box put out by Sharon at the last Members’ meeting and a very interesting suggestion was placed in it. The idea is of the Ladies getting together once a month starting January 2020. A popular venue is to be arranged, together with a date and time to be sorted out and details will be in the next Newsletter.

Any other suggestions please place in the box at the Members’ meetings.

The Vice Chairman’s position has been filled by Tony Wheatley on a temporary basis. We are very grateful for his extra commitment and I’m sure he will be well supported by all in the Group.

Because of the change of day for the November Members’ meeting, I phoned 10 members who do not have email addresses and had an interesting conversation with them. All were pleased to get their monthly Newsletter and felt this contact with the Group made them feel part of the Group, even though some were housebound and unable to attend meetings. For some the winter weather and dark nights meant they would be waiting until Spring before they would venture out. Others spoke about obtaining electric scooters to give them more access and all agree the change in the Constitution enabling us to donate to charities not based on the Island, but directly helping Isle of Wight men, a good idea.

Remember if any member wishes to attend one of our Trustee meetings, then contact me at 01983 638311, you will be most welcome.

Trustee Thoughts

October Member’s MeetingWe were fortunate to have 3 speakers from the Donkey Sanctuary, Derek, Carol and our own John Steege. A very fact filled talk, with the plenty of anecdotal stories about the history of the Sanctuary, individual donkeys, and pictures for us all to see, and revelations of people being helped

Traveller’s ReportI travelled over on Tuesday 6th November and met men on the Daisy Bus travelling to QA hospital for their round of treatment. As usual the Newsletters were well received and it became apparent that 2 of the travellers had reverted back to the old 37 appointment radiotherapy treatment. Everyone was in agreement how important the bus was to them, and complained about the lack of information from St Mary’s Hospital, many only learning about claiming the

www.theisleofwightprostatecancersupportgroup.org.uk

hovercraft fare back from the other men on the bus.At the Macmillan Coffee Bar in QA, I met up with Alan Barry and his family, and he told me how they had raised over £600 from a sponsored run, and that his daughter’s employer, Halifax/Lloyds bank would also put £500 towards their sponsorship money. As usual I left handouts and newsletters with the Bus driver to give to other travellers on the Bus. As yet we have no confirmation of finance for the bus after the end of March 2020.

through difficult mental issues by helping out working with the donkeys and the Sanctuary. A warm welcome was offered to anyone who wished to join them at Wroxall and John is always available to introduce you to the donkeys.

Tony Wheatley