WhatsUp
We like to keep in touch, just to let you know what we're up to sharing snippets that might be of interest - please read on.
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Trial Finders
In a recent communique, Dr Anny Sykes, Chief Medical Officer at the Oxford University NHS Hospital Trust (OUHT), said "In an effort to make it easier for patients and members of the public to take part in research, a new online tool listing all clinical trials currently open to recruitment at OUH has been created. Anyone wanting to take part in research at OUH can now visit studies.ouh.nhs.uk, where they can look for studies that are relevant to them."
This is a helpful link and local search tool for finding what trials are up and running at the hospital, with details of the study and who to contact.
And of course Cancer Research UK's own trial finder is another very useful and easy to use free service, listing what's happening nationally. Here's the link to their search tool, opening on the current listing of oesophageal cancer trials: Trial search results | Cancer Research UK. If you want to look for current stomach cancer trials, just click on the "choose from the list of cancer types" and pick "stomach cancer".
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Booklet Review
Every two to three years we carry out a review of our popular and well used advisory booklet, aiming to re-publish it with updated information and any new developments. We have a small and established review group to do this, including clinicians at the Churchill Hospital who kindly spend time fact checking and updating sections relevant to their specialism.
We plan to complete the current review by the autumn with a new print run thereafter. Whilst we can't include every bit of feedback or comments raised, we welcome and invite your opinion of our booklet in advance of the final edit, so if you have any brief comments or observations, you can email me via our usual contact address info@ooso.org.uk.
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Martin Amis
You may or may not know of Martin Amis, British Novelist, former student at Exeter College Oxford, twice nominated for the Booker Prize, who recently sadly passed away, aged 73, from oesophageal cancer. Thank you Gill, for sharing an excellent article authored by Dr Mark Porter in the Times, Monday 22nd May, prompted by Martin Amis's passing, describing the symptoms of oesophageal cancer and treatment pathways - you can view the article if you wish via this link:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cbc4ee1a-f8a6-11ed-bc7a-1444acf8fa38?shareToken=7f997628cde53f47e2c5b268e495c2f2
Raising awareness is definitely part of the battle, encouraging people to live healthier lives and get checked out regularly will undoubtedly save lives. But sadly we at OOSO also know of many folk who don’t drink alcohol, have never smoked, are not overweight, and indeed who are very fit, yet succumb to OG cancer. Risk factors mustn't be ignored, yet the picture is far more complicated than that - a lot more research, better treatment therapies, improved surgery and novel treatments are all vitally important. Many of us know from personal experience a feeling of stigma when associated with so called lifestyle cancers, which I believe are sometimes poorly represented and not very well understood. Of course this is a personal view of mine! and happy to discuss at any time. Needless to say, raising awareness and talking about cancer can only be a good thing.
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Café Catch Ups
We recently had a very enjoyable get together at Dobbies Garden Centre near Swindon, with twelve of us on board, talking for a good two hours! Whilst it's a nice social occasion we chat through stuff that either concerns us or that can help reassure others, and with a shopping opportunity thrown in what's not to like. Our next three café lunches will be as follows:
If you would like to attend one or any of these please let me know by email in advance, so we can make sure they can fit us in.
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Zoom Reminder
At our next session, scheduled for Tuesday 13th June at 7pm, our theme will be ‘rehabilitation’ and post treatment fitness and recovery. One of the Churchill Hospital's physiotherapists, Dane, will be giving us a short presentation about how to prepare for treatment and possibly surgery, and some tips around recovery. We’ll also have Dr Pierre Montauban joining us to tell us briefly about a novel project designed to monitor our own fitness during treatment and recovery. And we have two former patients who have kindly agreed to share some of their top tips and ideas around recovery. It'll be a busy hour, full of useful stuff - try not to miss it.
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Green Fingers?
I was hoping to run our annual plant sale again this year in June, but due to a set of circumstances unfortunately I'm not able to do it. But if you wanted to run your own plant sale, I could muster up some leafy donations to help boost your stock - just drop me a line soon.
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Best wishes as ever
Matt Carter
Chair of the Trustees
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