Our October meeting took the form of a "Pink Party", pink lights and balloons adorned the room, everyone came wearing pink and pink food and drinks were served, we had a lovely social evening together.

As usual a full house, we welcomed one newcomer to our group who was to have her surgery the following week.
Everyone enjoyed our Fashion Show and it was reported that we also made a healthy profit from the sale of tickets and raffle to add to our funds. Thanks to all those who helped.
Now that we have our website up and running, we decided to try and use the site’s logo as often as we could to advertise ourselves.
The group is 25 years old in May 2006, plans for a celebration were discussed.
Pam reported that she and another member of the Breast Team attended the "Westminster Fly-in" arranged by Breakthrough Cancer Campaign and Advocacy at which they had the opportunity to meet Hastings MP Michael Foster.
At this meeting, over tea in the House of Commons, they discussed some local issues around treatment of breast cancer patients, notably the testing for administration of Herceptin, the drug that is currently in the news. Michael Foster was very happy to discuss the Herceptin issue and promised to sign the Early Day Motion put forward on this issue by another MP, which will hopefully raise the profile of Herceptin.
Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for health, also attended the "Fly-in" and covered that and other issues around breast cancer management.
Many of us had questions to ask about the drug Herceptin after it’s recent news coverage, and Pam gave us this information.

Herceptin is a drug used to treat breast cancer. It belongs to a new group of drugs known as monoclonal antibodies.
It works by stopping one of the ways in which breast cancer cells divide and grow. Some breast cancer cells divide and grow when a protein called human epidermal growth factor, which naturally occurs in the body, attaches to another protein called HER2 that is found on the surface of breast cancer cells.
Herceptin works by blocking this HER2 protein so that the cells cannot divide and grow. Herceptin also stimulates the body’s immune system to destroy breast cancer cells. Only about 25% of women with breast cancer are HER2 positive. At the moment men and women are being tested to see if they are HER2 positive, but the licence to prescribe is still waiting at present. Hopefully Primary Health Care teams will fund it where appropriate.

A full fact sheet on the drug Herceptin is available from CancerBACUP

December Meeting

A lovely evening, with mulled wine, Christmas crackers and a few seasonal nibbles.
We discussed our 25^th anniversary celebrations and began to make up a guest list of those who have been associated with the group over the years, members were asked to try and think of anyone else that they might like included.
On a sad note we had to say goodbye to one of our regular members who was moving away from the area.