OGC Splash
Welcome to your new website!
Oesophageal-Gastric Cancer Support
for Portsmouth and the Local Area of South Hampshire
News!
Kew Gardens Day Trip 21st June 2022 – have you reserved your place?!
Our day trip to Kew Gardens will take place on Tuesday 21st June.
This is totally free, but we ask that you bring your own food to cater for your personal needs. Alternatively, you can purchase food at Kew Gardens.
We will travel by coach (which has a toilet on board) and will leave QA Hospital at 09:15 prompt so we ask that you are outside A Level Main Reception by 09:00.
Anyone parking at the Hospital and needing help please contact Tracy and/or Anne.
The coach will depart Kew Gardens at 15:15 to head back to QA.
Places are allocated on a first come first served basis, please let us know if you wish to come by 31st May – you’ll need to contact Lorraine on 07470 290847 or by email to lorrainesutton_ogcs@outlook.com.
Please let Lorraine know if you are over 65 (as ticket prices are reduced for Seniors), and also advise of any other requirements – e.g. Disabilities/wheelchair requirements etc.
NEW support group for carers!
This brand new support group designed specifically for carers takes place 3rd Wednesday of every month. See below for details.
Macmillan Survey
We know that, for so many of you, Coronavirus continues to pose many questions and may affect your day-to-day life, as well as where and how you receive cancer treatment.
Hard-working cancer professionals are doing their absolute best to protect services. However, unfortunately we know that the third wave of the pandemic has affected cancer services in some areas, for example for those whose cancer operations have had to be cancelled or delayed.
We know many of you have a cancer diagnosis or have loved ones who do. If you have been affected by disruption to treatment during this time, you are invited to tell us more here by clicking HERE.
By sharing your story with us, you can help us make sure decision makers are doing everything in their power to allow cancer care to continue.
Please remember that Macmillan Support is available for you, your loved ones, colleagues, friends and support group members.
More information on cancer and the coronavirus can be found on the Macmillan website HERE and you can always call the Macmillan helpline on 0808 808 00 00.
A new way to fundraise for OGC-SPLASH!
Exciting news! We are now set up on GoFundMe which means that those of you who wish to fundraise for us, can do so using this free website which sends 100% of the Gift Aid raised back to OGC-SPLASH. They also take no admin free from us to be registered.
All you need to do is register your fundraiser on the GoFundMe website found HERE, and select OGC-SPLASH as your chosen charity. Anyone sponsoring you or donating can make their payment online, simple as that! Donations enable us to keep offering the outstanding level of support we currently offer to our members and their families, so whether you are a marathon runner or a star baker any help you can give us is hugely appreciated!
Raise money for OGC-SPLASH with every Amazon order you place!
How would you like to help raise money for OGC-SPLASH while doing your Amazon shop? You can do this by simply logging into your Amazon account via the Amazon Smile link HERE.
You will shop in exactly the same way, except using the Smile link means 0.5% of your purchase price will go to OGC-SPLASH to help us provide support to patients and families dealing with Oesophageal or Gastric Cancer.
Simply select OGC-SPLASH from the charity list when you log in – you will need to search for us using our full name (Oesophageal Gastric Cancer Support for Portsmouth and the Local Area of South Hampshire.)
Online Events
The sponge on a string that can detect early changes in the Oesophagus – Cytosponge webinar
If you missed your chance to catch September’s webinar on the Cytosponge with Rebecca Fitzgerald & Cambridge University then you can now watch it HERE. This is an exciting opportunity to learn about this new future way of detecting changes in the oesophagus early.
Group Meetings
March 2022
On Saturday 12th March we held a group meeting for 30 OGC-SPLASH members who enjoyed advice from our resident dietician Rosie, and a chance to socialise & share experiences. It was fabulous to see so many of your lovely faces!
November 2021
We held an in person meeting on Saturday 20th November for the first time in a while with a reduced number of members. It was wonderful! Members enjoyed sharing experiences as usual with lots of tips and advice given by Lorraine. We are also thrilled to introduce Peter Datchens as our new committee member!
July 2021
A selected group of 23 members enjoyed a face to face meeting on 3rd July for the first time in 10 months! We had a few new members to welcome to the Splash family who hopefully benefited from the open chat session discussing diet & psychology followed by a Q&A with our surgeon Ben Knight. We had a full range of members from pre-surgery to 12 year survivors & it was truly lovely to see support offered to those struggling by other members, we feel so blessed to have such an amazingly supporting group. We also thanked our marathon runner Chrissy for the £1748+ recently raised for us presenting her with some beautiful flowers.
December 2020
OGC-SPLASH history was made in December 2020 when we trialed 2 small zoom meetings. We were initially unsure if holding meetings in this way would work well, but we were proven wrong by the huge success of both meetings. We invited a small group to both containing a mix of new patients, and those who have been members for some time. Instead of the usual format of a guest speaker we simply allowed everyone an hour to chat freely and share stories and tips. It was clear to see that providing support in this way was invaluable to all, and new friendships and support buddies were formed. Following the success of these meetings we plan to hold more during 2021 so please sit tight for your invite!
September 2020
We held a small socially distanced meeting on 19th September 2020 for 14 members, mainly new members who seemed to really benefit from meeting others & swapping stories.
If you didn’t receive an invite please bear with us, we are trying to arrange small pod groups based on postcode and you will receive your individual invite as soon as we are able to visit a town near you!
Bits & Bobs
Universal Key for disabled toilets
You can purchase a universal key which opens locked disabled toilets across the country through Disability Rights UK HERE. Toilets fitted with National Key Scheme (NKS) locks can be found in shopping centres, pubs, cafe’s and bus/train stations to name just a few places and in most parts of the country. The key costs £4.75 including delivery (Excl VAT).
NHS Talking Therapies
If you are struggling with depression or anxiety, you can be referred to NHS Talking Therapies by your GP or refer yourself online. See HERE for details.
Adults Safe Haven – for support with your mental health
If you need a little extra support with your mental health, Safe Haven may be the place for you. Link to website can be found HERE.
We are now a registered charity!
As of 15th May 2020 OGC-SPLASH is a registered charity with charity number 1189515. You will soon be able to fundraise specifically for us online and link us to your fundraising events, please check this website for the details which will be announced soon. The Committee recently met to celebrate and discuss future plans for the group (any excuse for bubbly!)
Dr Daksha Trivedi’s new book – ‘Now Living the Dream: A tale of surviving cancer’ is out now!
Dr Daksha Trivedi’s new book – “Now Living the Dream: A tale of surviving cancer” is available to buy on Amazon. Click to buy either as an ebook or paperback. The book will appeal to all cancer patients and their families as well as the medical profession – highlighting the journey as a patient.
In the words of Dr Trivedi, “My book conveys a message of love, courage and faith that overcomes all fears and not just to survive but how to live life to the full.”
All proceeds of the book sales will go to appropriate charities including the OPA, Together Against Cancer & Macmillan Cancer Support. You can also click here to buy the book direct from Dr Trivedi’s website.
QA Fruit & Veg market
The QAH fruit & vegetable market is now open Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays, from 8am-4pm – a exciting new event supporting wellbeing.
Anne’s surgical award
Here is our lovely Anne Gibbons receiving a surgical award for keeping the UGI CNS service running during the pandemic – how lucky we all are to have such a wonderful lady on our side 
Well done Anne & THANK YOU! Xxx
Tracy – our COVID Hero!
Our OGC-SPLASH COVID Hero award goes to Tracy Ancsell! On behalf of us all we wanted to acknowledge Tracy’s dedication to duty, when the call came to return to the centre of the pandemic our cancer CNS Tracy stood up to be counted and returned to critical care to nurse the most vulnerable and then bounced back into her job that was being managed by Anne… what a team! Thank you Tracy!
Macmillan Centre QAH!
The Macmillan Centre is open for appointments to offer support and information for patients who are already attending the hospital. Services are also offered by telephone, just call 02392 283323.
Fundraising
Riordan ran 5K every day of January 2021 for OGC-SPLASH!
Riordan Hanan ran 5K every single day of January 2021 to raise funds for OGC-SPLASH, for 31 days straight he ran in support of Splash at various locations. Riordan’s family have been touched by cancer several times sadly, including the loss of his older brother at just 17 years old. Riordan wanted to do something different to the usual setting of a new years resolution which is quickly forgotten, and plans to do something meaningful every month of 2021 starting with this.
You can still sponsor Riordan, or share his link by clicking HERE.
Committee member Christine Gorham recently ran her 52nd marathon in 52 weeks – and on 19th May she takes on her new challenge of running 10 marathons in 10 days in memory of her husband John who sadly passed away in 2018 from oesophageal cancer. Christine hopes to raise awareness of the disease, and will be fundraising for both Heartburn Cancer UK and OGC-SPLASH. If you would like to sponsor Christine and support OGC-SPLASH please click HERE.
Handy Links
- Free OPA download “Swallowing – nutrition when its difficult”
- Free OPA download “Medical Jargon Buster”
- Cancer Research Article “A sponge on a string test to detect oesophageal cancer earlier”
- Eastern Academic Health Science Network’s impact review features the Cytosponge “Surviving cancer through early diagnosis”
- Research Update – New model from Cambridge University predicts Oesophageal Cancer eight years early for half of all patients
- Cancer, Caring, Coping – a resource for carers written by carers
- National Cancer Institute – Eating Hints: before, during and after cancer treatment
- National Cancer Institute – Dictionary of cancer terms
- Nutrition Guide by Digestive Cancers Europe
- Roadmap for the prevention & treatment of Oesophageal Cancer by Digestive Cancers Europe