Annual Report

At our AGM on Tuesday April 9th approved our Annual Report below.

Financial Matters

The charity remains in a strong financial position with income slightly more than expenditure over the year. We have received a donation from the Rotary Club of Clay Cross and held two fundraising events, a hospital stall and a Coffee Morning. Members have made generous donations and contributions to the cost of events and one large donation was made to support the purchase of boogie boards.

Meetings and Membership

As in the previous year our membership has grown. We have held our usual 2 meetings per month, with large attendances at the afternoon meetings.

Special Events

We were joined by visiting speakers at two of our afternoon meetings. A representative from the East Midlands Cancer Alliance listened to our experiences as part of the process of revising their head and neck pathway. Fiona Robinson, of Severn Healthcare, gave a very informative presentation much appreciated by members. We held our usual Christmas Lunch and Summer Meal and there were trips to the National Memorial Arboretum and to Matlock. Five members attended an International Head and Neck Conference in Nottingham in November.

Work With Hospitals

During the year we had several requests from Chesterfield Royal to meet with patients facing a laryngectomy and we had a stall at their Information Point in June. Having started with Chesterfield Royal we have begun the process of providing boogie boards to QMC Nottingham and Doncaster RI.

Local Links

Local partners include the Nenna Kind Drop-In Centre, Derbyshire Voluntary Action, Heads2Gether, Derbyshire Cancer Steering Group and more recently the Be Cancer Safe Project.

Other Links

Our Secretary continues to serve as NALC President. The CompARE study, which we helped get funding, continues to recruit well and is the first head and neck study which delivers immunotherapy to patients in the UK.

Online Activity

Our website currently attracts around 1000 visitors per month. As well as reporting on our local work a news section provides information on head and neck cancer developments and the site is mentioned on many other relevant websites. We thank 34SP for hosting our site for free.