It remains to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy New Year. See you all in February for our first meeting of 2020.

Follow @headcases2

Our joint Christmas Party was enjoyed by all who came along on 4th December. The party was a joint one, between Headcases and Lost Chords. The raffle raised £220.00, which paid for the food on the night. There was a great turnout, despite some of our friends being away on holiday.

Here’s a couple of photos…

Follow @headcases2

We were very happy to hear about a recent patient who has kindly donated £1000 to UHNM Charity. The patient concerned has requested the cash be earmarked to help Head and Neck patients.

This has not passed through Headcases, but the result is the same – more resources to help the hard pressed E.N.T. department when central funding is so scarce.

Our thanks to the patient involved, and our very best wishes for long term recovery and future health. We’d love to meet you at a future Headcases get-together. The next regular meeting is February, as we don’t meet in January.

Follow @headcases2

Fred and I were welcomed by Amy Bainbridge, from Speech and Language and James Wood, UHNM Charity Dept. photographer when we visited on 19th November.

Amy showed us the equipment, and gave us a quick demonstration. It’s easy to see the benefits this will bring to patients, given that an objective measurement of tongue strength can be taken before any treatment or surgery. This can be compared with the readings post-treatment. A programme of exercises will then be created by Amy and her colleagues to restore tongue function as far as possible. The patient will be able to use the satellite unit at home to perform the exercised prescribed. Here’s a photo of the gear [ credit to James ]. I’ll publish a shot of the handover photo in the new year.

Follow @headcases2

It’s getting close now! Our normal meeting is replaced by the Christmas Party night. Food, Raffles, Quiz and a great social night for Headcases and Lost Chords. All welcome, bring along friends and family alike.

If you’d like to contribute any raffle prizes, please bring them with you on the night. There is a large stage to fill up ( and we usually manage it! )

Just a quick note: we don’t have a meeting in January, so the next meeting will be Wed 5th February at the usual place and time. Festive greetings all round, and let’s hope the General Election brings some satisfaction to at least some of us!

Follow @headcases2

We were delighted to hear the news from Noel, Gentlemens’ Captain that the recent fundraiser netted around £500 for Headcases, bringing the total so far for the year to around £3500. This will go a long way towards replenishing funds that we recently donated to UHNM charity to buy the IOPI equipment.

Our thanks to everyone who attended, and contributed to the fundraiser. Noel is always interested in more raffle prizes for future events so if you have any items in mind, please get in touch with myself or Fred Goodwin.

Follow @headcases2

Great turnout for Headcases November meeting! I counted 17 of us. We raised at least £70.00 on the night with a pop-up raffle and sale of pens. Thanks to John and Lisa for providing the fab hamper for the raffle. Alec was the lucky winner.

We have collected photos going back to the beginnings of Headcases, and Jan arranged a hardback photo book for Wendy Robson to keep. It includes shots from Lost Chords and Headcases meetings along with presentation ceremonies. Wendy loved it! Thanks to everyone who contributed photographs for it.

Fred has had a number of A3 laminated posters made for use at Health Centres and the like, to publicise Headcases. These are in the process of being distributed.

Here’s a memento of the night…

Follow @headcases2

The date for this event is now finalised – Saturday 2nd November. Funds raised on the night will be donated to Headcases at the end of the year. There will be a live band – Keydrum Osborn – playing a bluesey set. Please bring along  any raffle prizes on the night. All welcome, no need for membership etc.

Please contact the club for tickets and further details on 01785 223821

https://www.staffordcastlegolf.com

Stafford Castle Golf Club is located half a mile from Stafford Town Centre and 10 minutes from Junction 14, off the M6.

Directions to the course;- from the town centre take the A518 Newport Road, at the roundabout carry straight on and take the immediate right turn into Castle Way. The Club Car Park is at the of Castle Way but be careful as the cul-de- sac has right of way. From Newport, continue on the A518, past Stafford Castle, straight throught the traffic lights and just before the roundabout, take the turning left into Castle Way.

Follow @headcases2

These are great pens – they have a powerful LED torch built in and come in four colours. Each pen is imprinted with the Headcases web address. They write in black ink, and are priced at £1.50 each. This price allows us to make about £50.00 towards Headcases funds. If you’d like one ( or 10! ) please get in touch. We have 75 at the moment.

Follow @headcases2

Great turnout last night for the October meeting. Nice to welcome back some recent friends and say hello to some new ones. It’s never easy to turn out for the first time, especially so soon after treatment. The nights are getting colder, and it’s easy to just sit by the telly. Düsseldorf is a long way to come though, Kay!

Really chuffed that all 8 text to speech tablets are already being put to good use by patients.

There has been more progress on the IOPI Medical Speech Therapy equipment. The cash is in the hands of the Hospital Charity team, and pending a signature or two, should be on its way to the supplier soon. I know Amy and Co. at Speech and Language have received some advance training in its use, and are keen to start using the system with patients.

There’s an upcoming fundraiser at Stafford Golf Club. Noel ( Captain ) has been in touch with a blues band, who will be performing at the Club on Nov 4th. More details to follow when I have them. The band are KEYDRUM OSBORN.

Hope we’ll see you all in November!

Follow @headcases2