Chairman's Report

Happy New year to all of our Members and Families as well as all of our Supporters.

All the Committee Members are delighted with the achievements in 2012 and we will start 2013 with 102 Members in less than two years.

We are all looking forward to a very positive year ahead and with that in mind we are very pleased that Simon and Rose will be with us for our first meeting of 2013 which I have no doubt will be a meeting not to be missed.

Dave Beesley

Wednesday 30th January - Group Meeting
Our first meeting in the New Year will be on Wednesday 30th January, 6.30 for 7pm at The Oxford Golf Club.

The first item on the agenda will be a short talk by the NHS Thames Valley Cancer Network (TVCN) user group manager Sarah Pyne and Lead Urology User representative Bill Savage, about the work of the TVCN.

Next, Mr Simon Brewster (Consultant Urology Surgeon and Prostate Urologist) has kindly agreed to come along and answer any questions that we may have. Our Chairman, Dave Beesley will 'chair' the meeting and put questions to Mr Brewster that have been submitted in advance by you, our members. This promises to be an excellent evening so please join us to show our support for the staff at the Churchill - Specialist Oncology Nurse Rose Southby will also be in attendance, and as usual will offer help and advice.

If you have any questions you would like to put to Mr Brewster, please let me know as soon as possible - by email, in writing, or by telephone to me. They can be anonymous if you wish, but obviously he cannot comment on any specific personal cases. We anticipate that the general tenor of the meeting will cover matters such as any new treatments coming along together with the latest information on diagnosis etc.

Other matters:

We have had a successful few weeks with fund-raising events including a raffle at the Eynsham Hall Christmas fair, and £955.00 was raised at the recent Oxford Sportsman's Dinner held in December.

We also raised a large amount at The Carriers Arms public house in Watlington with Mark, a customer, being sponsored to have his head shaved off. He was assisted by his partner Donna and his mother Audrey who lost her husband, Terry to Prostate Cancer just over two years ago.

We are now able to claim Gift Aid on donations given by current tax payers - if you require further information, please let me know.

We will be having our usual raffle on the 30th, so there is an opportunity for you to pass on those Christmas presents that you didn't know what to do with!

We had a successful Christmas Skittles event at The Gardiners Arms in Tackley. There was much evidence of 'mis-spent youth', particularly from the ladies, with Gillian Gillett (the wife of new member Graham) walking away with the Cup.

Monday 11th March - Annual General Meeting

The following meeting will be on Monday 11th March when we will have the Annual General Meeting. Details will be circulated later. Please try to attend this meeting. There will be no pressure for anyone to get involved with the committee etc, unless they wish to, but new faces will always be welcome. It is not intended that the whole evening will be taken up by the AGM - there will also be a speaker. Last year's AGM was poorly attended - it is an opportunity to show your support and let us know what you think of the way things are progressing and put forward any suggestions you may have for improvements.

George Goldsmith
Secretary
Oxfordshire Prostate Cancer Support Group