Latest News

XMAS FAYRE

Our November meeting will be our Xmas Fayre with lots of lovely stalls including jewellery, handbags, scarves, handcrafts, homemade cakes and gifts, books and beauty gifts. Come and join us on Tuesday 13th November 2018 from 7.30 p.m at West Midlands Bridge Club, Warwick Road, Solihull B91 3EP. Friends and family also welcome.

CHARITY WING WALK FOR BREAST FRIENDS

On 2nd August 2018 our brave Chairperson Debbie Douglas realised a long term ambition of completing a wing walk to raise funds for our group. She was harnessed to the wings of a 1934 Steining bi-plane and took off with her family watching from the ground. The whole flight lasted just over 10 minutes with the pilot dropping down and then soaring back up and almost tipping the plane over. To date Debbie has raised in excess of £4200 with sponsorship still coming in. She would like to thank everyone who has supported her and in particular her colleagues at the Unite Union and Rolls-Royce. Well done Debbie on your fantastic achievement!

SOLIHULL HOSPITAL CHEMOTHERAPY UNIT

Wendy Scriven, Lorraine Ashford, Chris Bates and Sandy Worth from Breast Friends Solihull Committee were delighted to present a cheque for £10,000 to Samantha Howell from the Solihull Hospital Charity to support the newly opened chemotherapy unit at Solihull Hospital.

Independent Inquiry into Ian Paterson

The next stage 0f the Inquiry is to listen to evidence from former patients of Ian Paterson, representatives of former patients and relatives of deceased patients, to inform the lines of enquiry for other witnesses and, ultimately, the findings and recommendations which will be made to the Government.

The Inquiry would like to invite you to an evidence session so that you can share your evidence and personal experience, in private, with two members of the Inquiry team.

They will begin the evidence sessions week commencing 7 May in Birmingham and continue during May, June and July. Generally these will be held morning and afternoon on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They expect that each session will last no more than 1.5 hours.

If you would like to attend an evidence session please phone a member of the Inquiry team as follows:

Jane Pawson – Tel: 01132 545710/Mobile: 07585 134995

Margaret Fox – Tel: 0207 9721 292/Mobile: 07880 017393

Inquiry phone line (voicemail) – 0207 972 1295

Inquiry email – enquiries@patersoninquiry.org.uk

If they are unavailable, please leave a voicemail and they will return your call as soon as possible.

If you would like to share your experience as evidence to the Inquiry, but you are unable to attend an evidence session, please get in touch with them on the phone numbers or email above to discuss alternative arrangements.

How they will handle the information you provide to the Inquiry – Data Protection and Privacy Information

1. Purpose of processing: They will be processing personal information and sensitive personal information (particularly about patients’ health) for the purpose of fulfilling the terms of reference of the independent inquiry, published on the website at www.patersoninquiry.org.uk/terms-of-reference/

2. Security and sharing: All personal and sensitive personal information that you share will be appropriately protected, and will only be shared with those who need to see it for the purposes of fulfilling the Inquiry’s terms of reference. This may include a relevant employer, professional or quality regulator, or the police, if you provide evidence that indicates a criminal or disciplinary offence by someone.

Anonymised extracts of your evidence may be included in the findings of the Inquiry’s public report. An annex to that report is likely to include an anonymised summary account of the evidence you provide to the Inquiry about your experience, unless you request otherwise.

3. Retention: Within eight weeks of the Inquiry having fulfilled its terms of reference and issued its report, all other documents created during the course of the Inquiry to record details of your experience will be destroyed; as will any original document provided by you (or another person) to the Inquiry, unless you have requested its return.

4. Further information: Before the evidence sessions commence, we will publish more details about our information handling and privacy policy on our website: www.patersoninquiry.org.uk

TOP SALES RAISE £4585 FOR BREAST FRIENDS SOLIHULL

Sharon Pitkeathly came along to our November meeting to present us with a cheque for £4585 which she has raised through holding monthly table top sales for several years. This is a fantastic achievement and we would like to pass on our sincere thanks to Sharon for all her hard work supporting our charity.

BREAST FRIENDS SOLIHULL DONATES £20,000 TO THE NEW BREAST CANCER HAVEN IN OLTON

Breast Friends Solihull has extended the vital support it offers to women affected by breast cancer by making a donation of £20,000 to Breast Cancer Haven’s new centre opening in Solihull in October. This donation is the largest the centre has received to date and will pay to complete the refurbishment of the kitchen in the new Haven.

BREAST FRIENDS SOLIHULL BUYS NEW ULTRASOUND SCANNER FOR LOCAL HOSPITAL

Breast Friends Solihull is proud to present a cheque for £24,000 to Matt Fowler of Ward 19 of Heartlands Hospital to supply a mobile Ultra sound machine which will allow Nurses to perform ultrasounds of the upper arm so that they can insert portacaths for patients with metastatic breast and colorectal cancer. The ports can stay in indefinitely and patients can even swim with them in. They only need flushing once a month so will greatly improve the patients quality of life whilst having chemo.

FUN IN THE PARK

Breast Friends had a stall at the Fun in the Park event on Sunday 17th September organised by Solihull Soroptomists. It was a lovely family event and the sun shone for most of the day. We would like to say a big thank you to the Soroptomists for all their hard work in puttiing on the event and also for nominating Breast Friends Solihull as one of their chosen charities for 2017.

ACCUVEIN MACHINES NOW IN USE AT HEARTLANDS HOSPITAL

Our Treasurer Diane Webb recently went along to Heartlands Hospital to see the Accuvein machines we purchased for the hospital in use. They will be a great help when taking blood from patients and mean less discomfort for ladies whose veins have already been damaged through chemotherapy.

POST MASTECTOMY KITS FOR SOLIHULL HOSPITAL

Breast Friends have agreed to purchase 60 post mastectomy kits to give to all ladies having a mastectomy as their surgical choice at Solihull Hospital. This will comprise of a soft front fastening bra, softee and drain bag. The bag will be endorsed with the BF logo and will also include a Breast Friends bookmark and pen so that patients can contact us should they need our support.
We have also agreed to provide a swim form to anyone who requests a swim prosthesis. Solihull hospital tells us they generally get approx 30 patients per year who purchase the swim form but we would like to open this up to patients not in a position to purchase.

BREAST FRIENDS SOLIHULL FUND THE PURCHASE OF 3 ACCUVEIN MACHINES FOR SOLIHULL AND HEARTLANDS HOSPITALS
Accuvein machines help to locate hard to find veins in patients undergoing chemotherapy by vein illumination. This breakthrough device allows health care professionals to see a map of peripheral veins on the skin’s surface with the goal of improving venipuncture, the most commonly performed invasive medical procedure. We believe these purchases funded by Breast Friends Solihull should take the trauma out of blood tests for many of our ladies with hard to find veins.

COFFEE MACHINE AT HEARTLANDS HOSPITAL

Over the past year patients and families attending Ward 19, the specialist cancer unit at Heartlands Hospital, have been able to benefit from hot drinks from the new vending machine courtesy of Breast Friends Solihull.

Our Treasurer Diane Webb recently called by to get a progress report and the staff and patients were clearly delighted with their new facility. Breast Friends have committed to lease the machine for five years at a cost of £6000 and this will supply free tea, coffee and chocolate to patients over that period.

DONATION FROM IAN AND SUE BENTLEY

On 29th Nov. Ian Bentley celebrated his 40th birthday with family and friends and in the process of having a great party raised £800 for charity!.
Ian chose to donate to 2 charities close to his heart The Meningitis Trust and Breast Friends Solihull. Ian was taken seriously ill with meningitis at the beginning of last year and spent time in intensive care and then had a long recovery period. Whilst Ian was going through his illness his wife Sue was undergoing chemotherapy treatment after a recurrence of her breast cancer.

Ian passed on his thanks to Breast Friends Solihull for all of the help and support they have given to Sue at the time and for their help over the last few years.

Ian and Sue also want to thank family and friends for their support and generosity in raising these funds,

LYMPHOEDEMA SERVICES

There is now a generic referral form for lymphoedema which the Breast care nurse completes and sends to the Central Referral Portal at Moseley Hall Hospital. The clinic appointments are then allocated dependent on the patient’s GP location, please see details:-

South Birmingham – clinic at Moseley Hall Hospital

Central and West B’ham – clinic at Summerfield Primary Care Centre, Winson Green

East and North B’ham – clinics at Perry Tree Centre, Kingstanding or Ann Marie Howes Centre, Sheldon.

Solihull ladies will be seen at the Anne Marie Howes centre, 339 Sheldon Heath Rd, Garretts Green, Birmingham, West Midlands B26 2DS.
Solihull Hospital’s expert practitioner is Julie Cuneen.

BEV COMPLETES HALF MARATHON

Well done to our Programme Secretary Bev Walmsley and her husband Paul who recently completed a half marathon and raised £410 for Breast Friends.

LAUREN MAKES AN EXHIBITION OF OUR LADIES

Textile artist Lauren McManus created an exhibition on how cancer affects people’s lives following her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis. She came along to one of our meetings to take photos of our members which will be used to make postcards and badges. All money raised from the sale of these items will be donated to Macmillan.

BREAST FRIENDS SOLIHULL BUYS EQUIPMENT FOR LOCAL HOSPITALS

Breast Friends were delighted to present Solihull Hospital Breast Care Nurses with a new Nipple Tattoo Machine which will mean ladies can now be treated at Solihull rather than having to join a waiting list for Good Hope Hospital.

Breast Friends Solihull Buys a Second Blood Pressure Pump For Heartlands Hospital.

We are very pleased to be able to donate another Blood Pressure Pump to Heartlands Hospital Ward 19. It’s a Philips Assure Signs VS3 with Rollstand and accessories. Staff at the Hospital are delighted to receive this extra equipment from Breast Friends Solihull..