Sue, Ron, and Lorraine, three of our EPOC Volunteers have sent in their latest update:
“Lorraine and I spoke to 108 people between us. A little less than last month, mainly due to the fact that we both spent longer speaking to some of the people who were interested.
- Lorraine spoke to a lady who had recovered from 2 bouts of cancer. She had a sore throat a while ago, and when she saw her doctor he originally put her on antibiotics. Unfortunately it didn’t clear the sore throat, so the doctor took a blood sample only to find that the white count was up, the red count was very low, and she was anaemic. After further investigation she was found to have cancer of the bowel. She is now on the way to recovery.
- A couple stopped as the husband had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had an operation to remove the prostate, and is now well and in remission.
- A chap stopped to have a look at the leaflets we had available, and was particularly interested in breast cancer information, and wanted a number of each leaflet. He also took the Blue Boxers, kidney/bladder and cervical. Because he wanted a number of each leaflet, I thought that perhaps he was in the medical profession, but I didn’t actually ask.
- Another couple stopped., and although the chap really didn’t want to have too much information, and would rather not know if he ever got cancer, his wife was the opposite, and insisted that they have as much information as possible.
- A small group of male students stopped, and took away Blue Boxers, on the understanding that they would speak to their mates and pass the leaflets around. They seemed impressed that it was students from the University who designed these.
- A group of girls from The Castle Academy stopped, and took away information on HPV, breast cancer and cervical cancer.
- A lady stopped to chat, and she said that she had noticed blood in her urine, just once. She eventually was persuaded by a nurse friend to see her doctor and after tests she was diagnosed with cancer of the kidney. She had her kidney removed, and now is totally cancer free.
Each of the people we spoke to were asked to pass around the information leaflets, and they were all also told that the most important thing was to know themselves, and go to the doctor if they had any changes that lasted for more than 3 weeks. A very good and productive 3 hours.”
Thanks all!
