We saw it play out on RNZ and elsewhere: a war of words between John Campbell of Checkpoint and the Minister of Health about prostate cancer waiting times. Eventually there was an apology from the Southern DHB!
The embattled minister also told a group of bemused cancer…
We all want to live in hope. Sometimes hopes for survival are dashed if the cancer has spread too far. Can there be any hope then? Not in the narrow sense of the word maybe but there are still many things we can hope for. We might have years; we might be able to live with the cancer.
We can hope for good days, for good care, for a chance to make peace with life, to achieve a goal or fulfil a dream. We can hope for those few more good months or years where we can fulfill what we…
Fred's partner, Olwen, tells Fred's story.
It was mid 2015. Fred (68) was a bit irked. He had a sore on his tongue at the side near the back. Eating chocolate hurt it and it was getting annoying. He…
One of our members, Bernard, speaks in the video within this Nelson Mail article. He and his fellow throat cancer survivor speak out about the challenges of finding a new life after cancer and the need for males to be vaccinated against HPV. …
The head and neck cancer patients and carers I met at the Auckland Support Group in 2014 were pretty tough and staunch. I'd attended other support groups where there were tears and tender feelings but the head and neckers were quiet about their feelings and just wanted to learn more about the disease and enjoy the feeling of being silently supported. I don't know why our group is still quite matter of fact in its approach to cancer; maybe it is because we tend to be in an older age group…
Here is another WHNCD event in Auckland next week.
Gillies Hospital, a Southern Cross hospital in Epsom, is having two WHNCD events.
On the day itself, 27 July, they are having a staff red shirt fundraising day.
Prior to that, on 24 July from 6 pm til 8 pm, they are holding a Head and Neck Forum for General Practitioners.
The following topics will be covered
Multidisciplinary meetings, those panels we front up to after diagnosis. A room full of doctors and other health professionals who are going to decide our treatment and hence our fate. I've been to two: in the first there was a semi-circle of clinicians standing around the edges of the room and my…
We are using World Head and Neck Cancer Day as a chance to carry out our annual fundraising for stationery, the website and patient care packs.
The care packs are designed to make new patients aware that they don't have to face head and neck cancer alone.
Contents…
Only 10 days until WHNCD and here is another patient story to raise awareness of the disease and how patients experience it. Shane was diagnosed with Baso-Squamous Cell Carcinoma, a variety of head and neck cancer that started on the skin. His disease has been persistent but he has risen above it each time as a result of complicated surgery (nerve grafts and gold weights) and his own strength and courage. He had a difficult path to diagnosis which goes to show that…
As we build up to WHNCD, we will publish more stories about aspects of the cancer to raise awareness.
What are the psychological effects of head and neck cancer?
We were privileged to hear a talk by Sandy Cavell, then of CMDHB on 4 June, 2015.
Sandy Cavell, health psychologist at the ORL module at the Manukau Superclinic, was our speaker today. Sandy has conducted a lot of research into the psychological effects of this cancer, including into “unmet needs” and “benefit findings”. Sandy barely got through her slideshow…
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our questionnaire. Thanks to everyone who shared the link, or coerced their partner. This is an authentic, credible dataset. From here we can analyse the information, and prioritise our work. Look out for our summaries, as they are published here over the next few weeks. We all have much to learn, and it starts here with quality information for…
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