Happy Christmas everybody

Well, as we come to the end of another busy year, we wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope you have a peaceful and joyful festive period with your families, friends  and loved ones. Enjoy those festive treats and laugh long and loud if you can, for as we all know too well, this is not a rehearsal and life is for living.

                                         MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄

Charity presentation...

Today, committee members of Somerset Bowel Cancer Support Group Charity,  presented a cheque to members of the Colorectal Cancer Team at Musgrove Park Hospital for £16,750. The monies have funded  an air seal machine, as seen in the picture, that allows complex rectal surgery to be undertaken at the Trust - a procedure that had not previously been available locally. The group has also funded two surgeons from the Colorectal Cancer Team, who specialise  in rectal surgery, to attend training in the procedure.

This picture shows, from left to right,  Maria Salter, Colorectal Nurse Specialist & committee member, Lorraine Cooke & John Fielding, committee members of our group presenting the cheque to Mr Eyre Brook, Senior Colorectal Surgeon, Mr Vickery, Colorectal Surgeon, former Chairmen and one of the founding members of the group, plus Lead Colorectal Specialist Nurse, committee member and founding member of the group, Nicky Forsyth.

It was a pleasure to be able to present such a generous cheque to the department that allowed for purchase of this impressive piece of equipment for the benefit of Colorectal patients. This has only been possible through the generous donations made by you, our members and supporters, for which we thank you.

We will soon be letting you know about our next target for the groups fundraising efforts, so do come back for updates.

Thank you

Well, what a great day was had yesterday at our AGM and Annual Autumn Event, more importantly what a good crowd. Nigh on 140 people attended to hear Mr Paul Mackey, Chairman of the SBCSG, give an overview of the works of the group over the last year and updated attendees on where their monies from donations and fundraising efforts have been spent, including leading technology for surgery such as the air seal machine for complex rectal surgery, training for surgeons to undertake new procedures and technology for the specialist nurses to utilise, as well as funding today's event. This was followed by excellent talks by Dr Daniel Pearl on being a Bowel Cancer Screening Endoscopist and what they do, as well as Dr Vikki Morris on Ageing and the secrets of longevity. Two fantastic speakers who certainly gave us food for thought and went down well with attendees. A lively question and answer session for the surgeon, gastroenterologist, geriatrician and specialist nurses was undertaken before lunch was partaken, and the raffle was drawn with many members of the audience carrying off their spoils at the end of the day.

What an enjoyable day it was and once again so lovely to see so many of you at the event. Our plea for assistance on the committee did not fall on deaf ears with a number of people coming forward either as members or to attend the next meeting to see what it is all about. Any charity needs a number of reliable willing hands to assist in maintaining its day to day running, not least this one, so we are very grateful for those people who came forward. We are also grateful for those people who have skills that they wish to offer as a one off to help the group or even people who are just happy to run errands of fill envelopes. New ideas for the group are also helpful and all suggestions will be considered.

As always we are grateful to those of you who donate in the various guises to support our cause, your fundraising and donations is what makes this possible, however big or small. If you have an idea for fundraising and wish to promote it, please let us know and we will blog about it. 

Once again, thank you for your continued support.

Autumn Event 2017

It is with great delight that we inform you that the annual Autumn Event will be held on Saturday 21st October 2017 at the Somerset County Cricket Club. We will update you with further details nearer the time but look forward to seeing you on the day where we will updating you on the charities activities and plans. We do so hope you can come and join us on the day and look forward to catching up with you all.

We are also delighted to see that our very own local hospital has done exceptionally well in the National Cancer Patient Survey, being ranked number four in the country with our very own Colorectal Team being the best in the South West. This is extremely well done, ranking high up along with some of the best cancer centres in the country. Well done team.