Sunday, 1 January

On behalf of the Committee, may I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Membership numbers continue to grow and we now have 63 members. There are many activities already arranged for the coming year and, if you would like us to include talks on any particular subject or organise any social events, please let us know.

Donations.
We have recently received donations from Wantage Round Table (proceeds from a 'fish nibbling feet event') and Wantage and Grove U3A (Christmas raffle).

You may have seen in the Oxford Mail (20th Jan) and the Oxford Times that new member Tony Jones and his wife raised £365.00 for us at their Golden Wedding party in December. Thank you again Tony and the Oxford Mail for presenting Tony's story so well.

Judie Edwards (wife of member Fred Edwards) is kindly organising a 'Spring Concert' at St. John the Baptist Church in Burford on Saturday 17th March, starting at 7.30 pm. Tickets cost £10.00 per head (includes a glass of wine on arrival) and will be on sale at our meetings on 6th and 27th February. They can also be purchased by phoning Judie (01993 823228) or contact me (details herewith). Any help you can give by selling tickets will be appreciated. The proceeds are to be split between the Transplant Unit at the Churchill, and ourselves.

If you have any fund-raising ideas, please let us know and we will do all we can to help.

Group Events.
Our next meeting is on Monday 6th February.

If you intend to come to this meeting, please let me know numbers attending in order that we can prepare accordingly.

On Monday 27th February, also at 6.30 at the Golf Club, there will be a meeting where we hoping to have a talk about Maggies at the Churchill. Following this, members are invited to, if they wish, tell 'their story', ask questions and discuss the way they would like to see the group go forward. Rose will also be there and will tell us of the latest developments at the Churchill, together with her excellent tea and biscuits!

Our A.G.M. will be on Monday 19th March at 6.30 pm at the Golf Club. Details of the arrangements will be sent out shortly. Please try to attend this important meeting.

Awareness Events.
On 22nd Jan we had a Display Stand at the Heythrop Hunt Point to Point meeting, organised by John Goldsmith, assisted by John Grundy and myself. The venue was adjacent to The Fosse Way where the wind comes whistling everywhere. Several times it looked likely that the Gazebo was about to take itself off back to Oxford, but thanks to several ropes and using the Discovery as an anchor, it stayed put. There was a good crowd, superb racing, we spoke to many interested people and handed out over 300 leaflets. There are at least four more of these events in the coming months and if you would like to help on the day, please contact John via myself.

We will have an 'awareness' display in the Oxford Westgate Shopping Centre on the Sat 10th March and Sunday 11th March organised by Simon - further details to follow.

Dave Beesley is organising, what we anticipate will be a huge event at Oxford United's home match on Saturday 31st March. Oxford United are being extremely cooperative with this and we anticipate coverage by TV, Radio and the Press. We will be asking for about 20 volunteers to help with handing out leaflets prior the match. The plan is also to have several celebrities on the pitch at half-time to publicise our cause. Unfortunately, this cannot be a fund raising event this year. More details will follow.

General Matters.
We are in the process of applying for 'Charitable Status'. This will, amongst other things, enable us to apply for Gift Aid where appropriate. Our new website is now well on the way and should be up and running in the next few weeks. (Don't forget, if you do not have a computer, you can use one, free of charge, at your local Library).

We are now delighted to have our own OPCSG YouTube Channel where you can see clips from the ITV This Morning show of last November. You will see many familiar faces, and also Dave Beesley's excellent film, 'Day 37' showing his Radiotherapy treatment.

Click on http://www.youtube.com/user/OPCSG?feature=mhee

OPCSG also has an active Facebook page - to find it, click here or look for "Oxfordshire Prostate Cancer Support Group" on Facebook.

Apologies to those members who do not have a computer - believe me, in many ways you are the lucky ones. If there is time, we hope to show some of these clips at the meeting on 27th February.

Looking forward to seeing you at the next event,

George Goldsmith
Secretary
Oxfordshire Prostate Cancer Support Group