Summer Seaside Walk 2019

Ten of us, thyroid patients, friends, family members and supporters and a small dog, called Rita, walked from Broadstairs to Ramsgate on 17th August 2019, to raise awareness of thyroid disease, spend some social time together and raise a few pounds. This was our first ever fundraising event as we are a newly registered charity.  If you'd like to support the walkers donations can still be made on Just Giving.  

We were joined by the lovely Alex Clegg, campaign manager for Sense About Science, Ask for the Evidence campaign.  Here are some of the best photos of the day. Thanks to everyone who took part and supported us, not least, Gavin Shaw, ex Vogue Art Director and good friend, who happened to be sitting on a bench with his camera as we walked by and kindly took the first of the below action shots as, above Viking Bay!

Amongst other adventures: we stumbled on an experimental pop festival in a tent on Ramsgate beach, Contra-Pop, had a delicious lunch at the Royal Harbour Brasserie in Ramsgate (which looks a bit like a ferry, but isn't) and four of us, Lisa, Sue, Mary and Lorraine, with Rita, the puggle (pug beagle cross), walked all the way back again and finished up with coffee back at the Funicular Coffeehouse on Viking Bay in Broadstairs. The last photo as we relaxed with Rita, even made it on to Instagram, thanks to dear Sue. What a great day! See you next year?  

Find out more about The Walk here.

WECAN Academy SmartStart Patient Advocacy Training 

We were delighted to have the opportunity to attend an intensive three day training course for patient advocates from all over Europe 6-8th July 2019.  As members of the international umbrella organisation, Thyroid Cancer Alliance, we were offered places and sponsored to attend. Sessions included: how to use evidence for effective patient advocacy; understanding the regulatory environment; developing accredited health information resources; the healthcare ecosystem and economics; access to innovative treatments; research co-creation; resources; financial management and governance; project management; GDPR; Measuring Quality of Life and more.  Judith Taylor, our Chair of Trustees and Secretary Director of TCA, delivered an excellent session on creating health information resources.  We were live tweeting from this event using the #WECANAcademy hashtag.

December 2018 Multidisciplinary Endocrine Symposium.

Ten of us were fortunate to have the opportunity to attend MES18 at Imperial Centre for Endocrinology in London. This  photo, kindly taken by Trustee Judith Taylor, shows our stand and new banner at the event.  We learned a lot and made some great new contacts. 

November 2018 #ToftTalk event 

Dr Anthony Toft gave a fascinating talk on the Management of Hypothyroidism on 24th November 2018. Daz from D&M Photography and Team member, Patsy, very kindly took some great photos of the event - thank you Daz and Patsy! BBC Broadcaster, Jules Serkin, also video'd this event on her phone with a microphone - footage to follow once it's been edited.  Look out for the film of our September event which will be available soon too.  

August 2018 Summer Social - London Sky Garden & lunch 

We had a super time exploring the London Sky Garden and a lovely lunch at Haz in Bishopsgate for our Summer Social this year.  It was so good to have the chance to have the opportunity to relax and chat with our thyroid friends and supportive partners and to talk about the group future direction, reflections and lessons learned from previous events. So interesting to hear people's impressions of past meetings and explore ways we can improve and develop what we're doing and increase the profile of thyroid disorders in the media and with health professionals.
It means the world to be able to connect with others who can relate to having a thyroid condition! Thanks to volunteer, Gurjit, for inspired organising, to both venues for allowing us to be there - and to everyone who came. ​

May 2018, Tracking our health with digital technology event

While the rest of the UK was engrossed in the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, we were in a dark room in Covent Garden, listening agog to Mike Linskey of Pilipala share a fascinating presentation on how digital health could help change power dynamics in health care by giving patients control of their health data. We need to do a write up of this event. The Thyroid  Trust doesn't endorse any health tracking apps but we are interested in their development and Mike's company have been working on their app for thyroid patients since his wife had a hard time with her condition and needed something to help her track her symptoms and medications.  He was hugely knowledgeable and gave us a fascinating overview of the health app market and how it is developing as a whole as well as talking about his own product which has been developed with input from thyroid patients around the world. 

January 2018, Thyroid Disorders and Mental Health event

Thanks to Hayley for taking these pictures, to the brilliant Jo Clayton, Storycycler, for sharing her story, to all the volunteers, everyone who came and all the wonderful organisations who supported us with this literature for this great event. We think the  Team photo sitting on the stairs in the church afterwards could be our album cover - if any of us could sing or play an instrument!  

November 2017, Winter Warmer Self Care event

With thanks to Hayley for taking these super pictures of our November meeting - and to everyone for agreeing to be in them. We all enjoyed Michelle's excellent Self Care talk and demonstration of chair exercises and the group discussion afterwards.  Hugest thanks to all the volunteers who made this event possible!

Summer walk 2017

​We had a lovely day at the seaside together 3rd June 2017. Theresa, Karen, Mary and Lorraine walked 6k, from Broadstairs to Ramsgate, together. Thanks to all the kind a friendly folk and doggies we met along the way who helped take these pictures and to Broadstairs based designer Ross Solly who kindly designed us a little banner waving Thyroid Friends character!