Our EPOC Volunteers were invited to have a stall at the annual Boultham Park Summer Fair recently. Here’s a few words about the day:

“A rainy day until 2pm, when there was a Spitfire fly-past. Because of the weather, people didn’t come out to the park, so we only managed to speak to 4 people all morning.

We spoke to a young chap who was a member of the Oncology Department at Lincoln County Hospital.  He was very interested in what we were doing, and very impressed that EPOC had their own web site, with videos.  He was part of the department group who were looking to set up a special group to support and inform people who were attending the hospital for cancers.  We gave him contact details for Development Plus, as well as our contact details, to ensure he could get as much help from EPOC as possible. We had a chat about my own experiences and getting the right information about what happens with each treatment and its effects.  Fingers crossed that this takes off, as so many patients are missing out on help and support.

Once the rain stopped, the temperature went up, and the people came out to enjoy themselves.  So many of the stall holders had packed up by lunchtime, as things were so wet and difficult.  We managed to speak to a lot of people in the afternoon, and gave out a lot of information leaflets.  In fact, we managed to speak to 77 by the time we packed up at 4.30pm.

We spoke to a number of ladies who, although they had seen the adverts about breast screening for those over 70 years of age, still didn’t realise that they could still ask for a mammogram after that age. We also spoke to a few people we had seen on previous years, who came to us as they wanted information on specific cancers. Again we gave out quite a few Blue Boxer leaflets to males of all ages, with a lot of thanks from their wives.

Although the weather was so awful in the morning, it still ended up as being quite a worthwhile event.  This was the first year that the sun hadn’t shone, so fingers crossed for next year. We left the site just after 5.00, shattered!

Thank you to Lindsay Cutts and Malc Benetello for helping us to put up the marquee and for all your help!”

Thanks Sue, Ron, Lindsay and Malc!