Next Meeting

of North Yorkshire Haematology Support Group

6.30pm Wednesday 19th June

Guest Speaker

Karen Bonell Lymphoma Action

Future Meetings on...

17th July (Cancer Research UK)

Front Lounge (Cocktail Lounge) Golden Lion Hotel

Northallerton

.... we always meet same time (6.30pm), same place (Golden Lion), same day (3rd Wednesday of the month)

"Looking forward to seeing friends new and old"

Hi,

A big thank you to our guest speaker for last month, Macmillan

Haematology Nurse Specialist, Jenny Lawn, from The Friarage

Hospital. Jenny gave us a very interesting talk about Cancer

Related Cognitive Impairment or "Chemo Brain". It appears

quite common (3 out of 4 patients) and for most of us just a

temporary but worrying blip brought about by all the strong,

complex chemotherapy drugs we have to take such as

Methotrexate, Melphalan, Cyclophosphamide, Fludarabine,

Cytarabine and Cisplatin in particular. For 30% of sufferers,

though, the effects last many years. It tends to adversely

affect one's memory, concentration span, emotions and

executive functions such as planning, organising and multi-

tasking. To speed recovery, exercise is good, as are memory

clinics and talking therapies. Her advice was to pace yourself,

write things down, have a healthy diet, reduce your stress,

talk to loved ones about your concerns and keep active,

physically and mentally with crosswords, quizzes etc. It’s not

Alzheimers, it’s not progressive and it should be temporary.

This month we have TWO Guest speakers lined up. The first

will be Karen Bonell, the Regional Development Manager for

Lymphoma Action. She has to get back to Liverpool so can't

stay too late. Please come early if you want to meet her.

Our second guest is Nicola Hand, Cancer Lead

Clinician/Macmillan Lead Cancer Nurse for South Tees

Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She recently asked me if

she could gate crash our next meeting to get patient

engagement with the strategy they are proposing in South

Tees. Let’s see if we can help shape future care.

Graham

News

Newcastle Infoday 2019

SATURDAY 21st September 0915 to 1600

The next Myeloma UK Infodays are in Liverpool in

June, then Stirling, Derby and Birmingham and then

Newcastle on 21st September where the keynote

speaker will be Professor Graham Jackson. It’s a new

venue for 2019, not the usual hotel next to IKEA at the

Metro Centre but the Crowne Plaza Hotel Newcastle

(Stephenson Quarter), Hawthorne Square, Forth Street,

Newcastle NE1 3SA (just behind the railway station).

As part of Myeloma Awareness Week I have produced a load of

tri-fold leaflets to advertise our Support Group in Hospitals,

Doctor's Surgery's, Macmillan Info Points and other public places.

If you think you know of anywhere these can be displayed please

ask me for a handful.

The Life Kitchen

A food writer who has won national acclaim for his innovative support

for cancer sufferers will be sharing his expertise on the opening day of

the first Sunderland city Food and Drink Festival.

And for Ryan Riley it means a return to his roots, following the opening

of his first Life Kitchen base in Sunderland. Ryan, who has worked for

a range of national food magazines, realised while his mum, Krista,

was undergoing chemotherapy treatment five years ago what an

impact it had on the sufferer’s ability to taste. After Krista sadly passed

away Ryan decided he wanted to do something to help other people in

that situation – and Life Kitchen was born.

His initial plan was to offer free cookery classes to people living with

the disease, creating dishes that would incorporate flavour and

excitement into their food. His scheme attracted so much attention –

including from television personalities such as Sue Perkins and Nigella

Lawson – that he was soon running classes across the country. And

now he is returning to his home city, where he will be running two

sessions on the opening day of the festival on 21 June.

Ryan has also chosen to make Sunderland the first permanent base

for Life Kitchen and has taken over the former Mowbray Park Lodge

which will also open next month. “As a multi-award winning

organisation that provides free cookery classes for people living with

cancer focused on taste and flavour, I am delighted to be part of the

Sunderland Food and Drink Festival,” said Ryan. “Cooking enjoyable

and delicious food is at the core of everything we do so the chance to

be able to share with my hometown is wonderful. I'm hugely looking

forward to the day.”

Ryan’s one hour sessions will be at noon and 3pm in the marquee at

Keel Square and are free to take part.

Fundraising

Does anyone want to do any fundraising? Do you know of anyone who

would welcome a bit of help or publicity for their sponsored bike ride?

Marathon? Coffee Morning? etc. Get in touch with me.

Last weekend I helped out at the

Macmillan Charity Raceday at York Racecourse.

As well as managing to watch all the races, place a crafty bet or

two (the best I managed was a 4th!) and have a really enjoyable

day out we managed to raise about £18,500 selling raffle tickets

to the 35,000 race goers. We also did a bucket collection as they

were leaving. In total we raised over £640,000. It is Macmillan's

biggest single fundraising event of the year. This will fund 12

Macmillan nurses for 1 year! There were 120 of us volunteers. I'd

thoroughly recommend it to anyone. They also need help at other

events like marathons so if you fancy give them a call.

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