Wednesday, 1 February

Thanks to everyone who replied (electronically) to NICE re Abiraterone. We await the outcome of the decision that NICE reach regarding the appeal.. Apologies to those of our members who are not on email. You are probably aware that NICE have refused to allow the end of life drug Abiraterone to be prescribed on the NHS. Their argument is that it is too expensive.. The Federation had asked us to send letters to NICE via an electronic link - we had a good response and sufficient letters were sent.

Arrangements for meetings.
Four of the committee went to a meeting of the Reading Group recently and we learned a lot from them regarding organising meetings. In future, we will assemble at 6.30 pm for the meeting proper to start at 7 pm. This half hour will give time to have a cup of tea or a drink from the Bar. Any ladies who are willing to give Rose and Jane a helping hand with this will be most welcome. We will also provide name badges for each member, together (if they agree), with an indication of which treatment they are awaiting or have received. There will also be a Power Point presentation running from 6.30 which will show the latest news and events. It is some time since we had a meeting to facilitate the opportunity to get to know each other better and we hope that the next two meetings will go some way to rectifying this.

Meetings and Events.

Our last meeting was seriously affected by the weather, with several couples unable to attend. Both speakers were well received and informative. Danny Cox has made a film of both talks and these should be available for viewing shortly. The video of Dave Beesley having his Radiotherapy treatment has now received over 800 'hits' and is proving to be a very useful tool for cancer sufferers generally.

Our next event is on Monday 27th February, 6.30 at The Oxford Golf Club. Rose has kindly offered to give a talk (on a subject of her choice) and then we can talk amongst ourselves as we wish.

We will have a Raffle - any prizes will be most welcome.

The meeting after that (19th March) will be our first Annual General Meeting.

If you CLICK HERE, you will find the Agenda, voting forms for the committee, and another form to use if you wish to raise any matters for consideration at the AGM. Both of the forms are to be returned to me no later than 12th March.

As far as the committee is concerned, both the existing Chairman (Bob Adams) and Vice Chairman (Simon Lord) are not seeking re-election. The Secretary Myself, and the Treasurer( John Goldsmith) are standing for re-election and we have a nomination for the role of Chairman (David Beesley). The remainder of the committee - John Grundy and Edward Pilling are also standing for re-election. Rose and Jane are both ex-officio members. We are in the process of applying for Registered Charity status and this can proceed when the new committee is agreed.

If you have any suggestions for topics, speakers, social events for future meetings, please let us know. One suggestion we have received is a talk about suitable and unsuitable dietary foods for Prostate Cancer patients.. It is your group and we anxious to meet your requests and suggestions.

We have several fund raising events planned for March (it is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month) including a major event at Oxford United on 31st March. We are asking for volunteers to help on the day, prior to the Match (starts at 3pm). If you are able to help, please let me know.

New Website
The new website should be launched in the next week or so. It will give all details about our group, programme, donors etc.

Many thanks and see you on Monday,

George Goldsmith
Secretary
Oxfordshire Prostate Cancer Support Group