New board members and first recipients of our Pinc and Steel project – that is how the last month has panned out.
Webhost Ian Fernie and my son and IT specialist Peter Jansen are joining our board of trustees.
Our project to fund ten patients through the Pinc and Steel physical rehab course has started. With extra money raised via Dry July we are hoping to get a few more than ten through this year. Patients have joined the project from Invercargill, Rotorua and Auckland with two booked in from Mangonui and Tauranga.
Pinc and Steel is held at physiotherapy clinics around the country – often the Active Plus clinics – where there are physios trained to help cancer patients get their lives back after treatment. There is plently of funding available for patients in South Auckland. This is not the case elsewhwere in Auckland but we can provide funding for a few more people to go through clinics in Albany and Mt Eden where two of our most knowledgeable head and neck cancer physios practise.
November 1 sees us back at Domain Lodge from 10.30 to 12.30 for group support and a talk by a radiation oncologist. With so few attending these meetings this year we will rethink our meetings in 2024. One idea is to make them responsive to people’s needs. Where do you want to meet, when and what do you want to talk about? We could also centre them around experts who are available at certain times.
We don’t know how the health system will change with the new government but we know the health system is an unwieldy machine. We just hope that the wheels keep turning for patients and health practitioners alike.