Looking back over 2012 the highlight for Breast Cancer Care Scotland was our Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day event at Glasgow City Chambers in October.
Looking back over 2012 the highlight for Breast Cancer Care Scotland was our Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day event at Glasgow City Chambers in October.
We had several aims:
- creating a forum for people with secondary breast cancer who already use our free services to share their experience and influence our planning
- meeting people with secondary breast cancer who may not yet have used our services and events
- alerting people to our information and other resources
- highlighting to policy-makers the healthcare service experience of people in Scotland.
There were around 60 guests including people who have used our services and their families healthcare professionals politicians and Breast Cancer Care volunteers and staff.
Among our speakers was Bailie Jacqueline Docherty representing the Lord Provost. With her in the photo is the rather splendid Master of Ceremonies.
There was a welcome from Diana Jupp our Director of Services. Then an Advanced Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist from The Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow offered a clinical perspective followed by a moving Day in the life account from a person with secondary breast cancer.
As Head of Scotland I gave an overview of Breast Cancer Care Scotland and asked people to join in with our influencing activities for the awareness day and beyond.
There was a live on-screen Twitter feed to encourage people to join the conversation and raise awareness of secondary breast cancer.
At three Action Stations guests were asked to:
- tweet their MSP to remind them of the issues faced by those living with secondary breast cancer. This has led to much better contact with around 20 MSPs
- join the Thunderclap which enabled tweets from campaigners to be sent simultaneously to create a bigger impact. Around 27 people joined adding their 5000 followers to the overall reach
- add their personal story of a day living with secondary breast cancer. Eight people signed up to share their hope and experiences with other in a similar situation.
You can also join the big conversation: twitter.com/BCCare twitter.com/BCCareScot and twitter.com/BCCare_UpNorth