Monthly Archives: November 2019

Gift of £1000.00 from a Patient to UHNM Charity

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.

IOPI Medical: Handover Ceremony

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.

Christmas Party: Wed 4th December @ 19.00hrs Longton & Meir British Legion

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!

Stafford Castle Golf Club Fundraiser

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.

November meeting success

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…