Hi all, a quick reminder to confirm that our meeting will take place at the usual venue: The Red House pub in Caverswall village at 7.30 pm this coming Wednesday.
Don’t forget it’s a very informal gathering, and all who are affected in any way by any variety of head and neck or thyroid cancer are most welcome to come along. This includes patients’ friends and family.
Hi all. This is just a quick reminder that it’s that time again. We meet next Wednesday 3rd June at the usual place and time. The Red House, Caverswall at 7.30pm. Hope to see you all there!
Hi all. A quick reminder that we’ll be meeting as usual this coming Wednesday. No April Fool’s jokes please! We’ve been contacted by a few friends who’ll be on holiday. I hope we’ll see everyone else there.
Don’t forget to change your clocks tonight…
We reached over 10,000 signatures, and so the Government were obliged to give a response.
The response is very wordy, and basically amounts to retaining the status quo. There are links to existing services, and no promises for any improvements. This is disappointing. The petition is still live, but would need to reach 100,000 signatures to trigger a debate in parliament. Thank you to all who signed.
To read the full response, follow this link:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/743337?reveal_response=yes
Hi all. Our March meeting took place as planned at the Red House in Caverswall. We totalled 14 people, including Julie, our SLT lead. Julie had some good news regarding her application for funding for the EMST trial I mentioned in last month’s post. The funding has been granted, and it shouldn’t be too long before we see these devices in the hands of suitable patients. Thanks Julie!
We were very excited to welcome Jacqui to the meeting, and to mark the occasion, Headcases presented her with a bouquet of flowers. We all joined together in wishing Jacqui good health and good fortune for her future. After many years as a Cancer Nurse Specialist, Jacqui has now decided to retire. On behalf of all of us, thank you Jacqui!
Hi all, a quick reminder that we’ll be meeting at the Red House, Caverswall, this coming Wednesday. I hope we’ll have a great turnout as we did last month. It’s been rumoured there will be a very special guest at the meeting….
Look forward to seeing you all there.
There was a great turnout for our first meeting of the year at our new venue: The Red House Pub, Caverswall, Stoke on Trent. We were very happy to welcome back our Chairman, Fred and his wife Rita who have not attended for a long time due to health issues. Julie, our SLT lead also joined the meeting, and spoke about some exciting developments at the hospital related to EMST. More on this later.
A total of around 20 people came, and a very lively session followed, with much catching up, as we’ve not gathered properly for some time.
EMST stands for Expiratory Muscle Strength Trainer. It’s a small device, allocated and retained by each patient. It’s used to help patients improve swallow, cough and voice strength. These are all issues facing head and neck patients after treatment. Julie and the team at the hospital are pushing the NHS to fund these devices, as there have been more than 70 peer reviewed studies showing the effectiveness of this simple intervention.
It would help Julie if patients mentioned this device when visiting their clinicians in hospital. The more interest we can generate, the more likely we can achieve a good outcome. The device is available privately (via Amazon) at £75 each, but we feel such a simple aid ought to be available as part of the treatment. Headcases are considering the possibility of funding some of these for trial purposes. The device is pictured below.
I hope to see you all again at the March meeting ( Wed 4th March at 7.30pm, Red House ).
This calls on our Government to fund free dental care for head and neck cancer patients both during and after treatment to address the severe oral health challenges survivors face, and improve their quality of life.
Many hospitals don’t retain a Restorative Dentist. The ongoing dental care required is beyond the capabilities of most high street dental chains, who are more concerned with selling alignment and whitening packages these days.
Please follow this link, and take a minute to sign. Sharing via social media will help too.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/743337
Hi all. I hope this update finds you well. I’m happy to report that after a bumpy couple of months we’ve secured a new venue for our Headcases monthly meetings, starting with the first meeting of the year – Wednesday 4th February. It’s the Red House at Caverswall.
The Red House has ample off-street parking and is on the street level, so no long flights of stairs anymore. We’ve been allocated a separate area of the lounge, which is raised up by two steps. Photos below: First shows the bar on the right, with our allocated room in the background. The second is a close-up of our room, which can comfortably accept 20 people. The pub has a lovely outdoor area we could use in the summer, and serves nice pub meals till 6.30 pm on Wednesdays. We visited today to finalise things and were given a warm welcome by Sabrina, landlady.
The full address is:
The large car park is to the rear of the pub.
Please spread the word by phone, social media etc. and let’s see if we can get a great turnout for the first meeting of the year!
Just a quick note to let you know that John’s party at Fenton Town Hall has now been cancelled. Lisa had asked everyone to save the date a few months ago. It would have taken place this coming Saturday 29th November 2025.
