On a very wet and windy Friday 6th July 2012 members of the Industrial Disease team at Pannone went along to various events across the country organised by asbestos victim support groups to support Action Mesothelioma Day. All events were a great success in raising awareness and bringing those affected together. Here’s a round-up of the day:

On a very wet and windy Friday 6th July 2012 members of the Industrial Disease team at Pannone went along to various events across the country organised by asbestos victim support groups to support Action Mesothelioma Day. All events were a great success in raising awareness and bringing those affected together. Here’s a round-up of the day:  

Greater Manchester

Pauline Chandler, Alicia Rendell and Rachel Craig attended the Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group event at Manchester Town Hall.  They heard the Canadian campaigner Kathleen Ruff speak about the campaign to stop the Canadian Government re-opening the Jeffrey asbestos mine in Canada.  Rachel handed over a cheque for £285.47 for the support group which has been raised by staff in serious injury participating in breaktime bingo, murder mystery pub crawls and guess who competitions over the past few months.

Merseyside and Cheshire

Lynsey Robinson, Jenny Garsden and Elizabeth Carley attended Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support and Cheshire Asbestos Victims Support Groups event at Liverpool Town Hall.  There was a great turnout and a dove release took place despite the weather, albeit under the watch of a lot of umbrellas.

The focus this year was on the campaign for a global ban on the use of asbestos and excellent speeches were given by Dr Chris Warburton, Clinical Director/Consultant Respiratory Physician, Bernie Sanders, Macmillan Information and Support Manager and an inspirational speech was heard from Laurie Kazan-Allen, editor of International Ban Asbestos Magazine.

Barrow

Ginny Newman and Madelene Holdsworth attended the event held by the Cumbria Asbestos Related Diseases Support (CARDS) to celebrate Action Mesothelioma Day in Furness College, Barrow in Furness.

Dr Helen Clayson spoke and a video was shown featuring CARDS members telling of the effect asbestos has had on their lives and the help and support they received from BARDS, now CARDS as well as a DVD “The Indian Asbestos scandal” showing the shocking current asbestos use in India.

The Poster Competition prize winners were announced and cheques presented to a number of students from Furness college, who had designed posters warning of the dangers and effects of asbestos exposure. The fantastic posters were displayed for us all to see.

Finally, there was a presentation of Ginny Newman’s cheque to the support group, of money raised by her by doing a sponsored (cold and wet!) run in the Lake District in May 2012.

   

West Midlands

Kim Harrison and Louisa Saville attended the West Midlands Asbestos Victim Support Group event in Birmingham town hall.  Doug Jewell gave a rousing presentation about the campaign for a worldwide ban on asbestos and Denise Silvey, lung cancer nurse from Heartlands Hospital spoke about the medical care for mesothelioma victims.  A prayer was said and a local choir sang a song about asbestos

Sheffield and Rotherham

Patrick Walsh and Chris Briggs attended the Sheffield and Rotherham Asbestos Support Group event at Sheffield City Hall.  A speaker from the June Hancock research fund spoke about it's work, John Edwards, surgeon spoke about the most recent developments in research into mesothelioma, a Union rep from Ucatt spoke about the battles victims still face to get compensation in the face of big  business and vested interests and Paula Walker spoke about the International Ban on asbestos products campaign and the campaign against the Canadian governments decision to loan 58 million Canadian dollars to re-open the asbestos mine in Canada for export to the third world.

Contact: Kim Harrison

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