So the group continues to grow and we currently have 12 men who are in contact one way or another. We have had our first few meetings and the last one was with the Specialist Nurses from the Salisbury Hospital Urology Department. We plan to repeat this a couple of times a year and this will give us the opportunity to ask questions of the professionals. We were able to get some answers to questions about treatment and blood results etc. What was also interesting about the time was that we had learnt alot in our time together and we were able to let the nurses know of knew information. As an example, one of our group had been in touch with the Wiltshire Continence Service and had discussed with them about providing pads for men instead of their usual provision for women only. This was a great piece of news for the men and we had discussed how this was unfair in a previous meeting.
For this meeting, we had to change the time to make it within the working day for the nurses. This will need to be done with caution as we did get a couple of men turn up for the evening meeting.
The website is now up and running and, if this blog appears elsewhere, can be found at https://northdorsetpcs.wixsite.com/ndpcs
I often think we are going to run out of things to say or discuss, but to my surprise, there is a constant flow where everyone gets a chance to talk and the time goes really quickly.
On the business end, we now have a bank account and can receive donations to support our meetings. I have applied for funding with Tackle Prostate Cancer and we will then be able to claim back some expenses and pay for the church for the meeting space.
Still going strong
John