EuroPMP International Workshop

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We were delighted to work with the Peritoneal Malignancy Institute Basingstoke to deliver the EuroPMP International workshop on Pseudomyxoma Peritonei  (PMP). This meeting was part of the EuroPMP COST Action. We welcomed specialists from around the world, including: Germany, Spain, Sweden and the US, to discuss the latest developments in the management of pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) and there was a great buzz of discussion.

 
 
   

 

Clare’s 50km Thames path challenge

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Clare has set herself the challenge of tackling the 50km Thames path challenge. The ultra-challenge is described as ‘scenic but tough’ and will take walkers between 10-16 hours to walk. The route starts in Bishops Park, over Putney Bridge, past Hampton Court and meanders along the river to Runnymede Pleasure Ground, Egham.

Good luck Clare and thank you for choosing to fundraising in aid of our work.

Support Clare via her Justgiving page.

 

Professor Heald receives Swedish honour

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Professor Bill Heald was bestowed the honour of ‘Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star’ from HM King Carl XVI. The Order of the Polar Star was established in 1748 by King Frederik I of Sweden, and has been bestowed on foreign nationals since 1975. The award recognises Bill’s meritorious and pioneering surgical work and devotion to duty.

Professor Heald received the award from the Swedish Ambassador to the UK, Mikaela Kumlin Granit, at the Swedish Embassy on 29 April 2022. The Ambassador referred to Professor Heald’s tireless work with the Swedish medical community which led to improvements in the treatment of cancer, improved patient care and improved survival rates, not only in Sweden but across the world. She summarised his remarkable career, including having been a vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, as well as his development of the pioneering surgical technique, total mesorectal excision (TME), which has become the gold standard for lower rectal cancer removal. The Ambassador praised Professor Heald for promoting cooperation between Sweden and the UK with the noble aim of alleviating human suffering.

Congratulations Bill. 

 

Pelican Research continues to go from strength to strength

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Caoimhe Walsh, Surgical Registrar
March 2022

A Pelican supported research study COALS, was presented at the Upper Gastrointestinal Congress in Belfast in October 2021 by Ms Walsh, who won the UGI Congress Oral Presentation Prize for the best presentation in the Liver Free Paper Session.

Ms Walsh was delighted to go on to present the work further afield at the 15th IHPBA World Congress 2022. This conference was organised by the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association and was held in New York, USA, between 30 March – 2 April 2022.

COALS was investigating coagulation in liver surgery. Its specific focus was to understand the changes in coagulation ​(blood clotting) that occur before, during and immediately after liver surgery for colorectal metastases​ (secondary bowel cancer). ​Blood loss is a major risk when operating on the liver so understanding how to reduce that risk is vital to improving patients’ survival and recovery from this type of surgery.

Presenting the studies significant findings on an international scale, is hoped to add weight to the growing field of evidence supporting a global change in practice amongst liver surgeons to improve patient ​outcomes.

Huge congratulations to everyone involved in this study.

 

Gina and Nick walk the West Highland Way

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From Gina:

Myself and Nick are going to walk the West Highland Way in July to raise money for liver cancer and problems associated with it, such as uncontrollable bleeding during/after surgery.  The walk is 96 miles in total and we will be doing it over 7 days.

Day 1 Milngavie ~ Balmaha (16 miles)
Day 2 Balmaha ~ Inverarnan (25 miles)
Day 3 Inverarnan ~ Tyndrum (12 miles)
Day 4 Tyndrum ~ Kingshouse (19 miles)
Day 5 Rest Day
Day 6 Kingshouse ~ Kinlochleven (9 miles)
Day 7 Kinlochleven ~ Fort William (15 miles)

I lost my lovely dad back in 2000 at the young age of 43.  I am now the same age that he was when he first got symptoms so I thought it was a poignant year to complete a challenge and raise lots of money in his memory.  He went through so much and so a few blisters and aches won’t do me any harm!

The money will go to our chosen charity, Pelican Cancer Foundation, the funds will be transferred once the walk is complete and I will update my page once this is done.  Our money is going towards the COALS project which is directed at secondary liver cancer and the complications with this.

Thank you so much for donating, it means a lot ♡ – https://gofund.me/35b1c640

Gina and Nick x

Scan to donate

 

Richards Ride London 100 & Ironman 70.3 challenge

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Richard works for Pelican as our Finance & Office Manager. If you phone or email our office, Richard picks it up. If you’ve been to one of our courses or meetings, Richard’s the smiling face that greets you (& the person swiftly disappearing to fix inevitable tech issues!). Richard makes things happen & keeps Pelican pushing forward.

Richard not only undertook Ride London-Essex 100, he doubled the difficulty & signed up to 2 events -13 days apart! After getting off the bike in London – 102.3 miles later! – he headed to Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire, to complete a huge triathlon – a 1.2 mile reservoir swim, a 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile run. You can read about his challenge and sponsor him on his page – www.justgiving.com/fundraising/richard-moore87

Results

  • Ride London-Essex 100 – TIME: 06:39:16 completed 102.3 mile cycle
  • Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire – TIME: 06:39:21 completed 1.2 mile reservoir swim, 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile run

Congratulations, all the training paid off. We are so proud!

“I am taking part in Ride London-Essex 100 and Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire in aid of Pelican Cancer Foundation. I have worked for Pelican since November 2015 and the charity means so much to me! I would be so grateful for any and all support.

Ride London-Essex 100 is a 100 mile bike ride starting in central London heading out to Essex before heading back to London to finish on Tower bridge. Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire is a triathlon comprising of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile run. These two events will push me to my absolute limits. I have been training since the start of the year and it had been so hard to keep motivated, but I am determined to achieve my goal of finishing both events in one piece!

Being part of the Pelican team, I have been able to see the massive impact this small charity has and it’s mind blowing! It’s ability to support medical policy change, through seed funding ground-breaking research and organising national education programmes is fantastic. Being part of the positive changes made to diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients is a privilege.  

I am so proud to work for such a small but mighty charity and want to do a everything to help secure its future after such a difficult two year!” 

 

Jonathan – RideLondon-Essex 100 2022

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Jonathan took one of our charity places and rode in the 2022, RideLondon-Essex 100 event. The route was 102.3 miles starting on Victoria Embankment, touring through the Essex countryside and then returning to London for a finish at Tower Bridge.

Jonathan completed the ride in a fantastic time of 07:41:58.  Thank you for being part of Team Pelican and fundraising to support our work.

Peaks for Pelican

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Over three days of the 2022 Jubilee Weekend, 3, 4 and 5th June 2022, a team of seven intrepid members from Redco and Red Dragon took on the Three Peaks Challenge, scaling Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon.

Louise, a member of the administration team at Redco (and Business Manager David’s wife) is currently living with incurable PMP. In 2014 and 2020 Louise underwent major surgeries and chemotherapy at Basingstoke Hospital to treat her condition and continues to be under the care of its amazing team. There are currently only two centres in the UK able to treat the disease, with Basingstoke leading the way thanks to its pioneering and life-saving work with Pelican.

Visit their JustGiving page and read about their training and why they are supporting Pelican.

Watch a video of how they got on – youtube.

Pictured above: Mr Brendan Moran, Louise & David.

Pictured below in various photographs: David, Carl, Sam, Chris, Luke, James, Ross & Louise.

 

 

Paintings by Chris Boulton – Charity art exhibitions

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Chris has kindly held charity art exhibitions in aid of his two chosen charities Pelican Cancer Foundation and My Cancer My Choices. Chris has a Facebook page and regularly updates it with his latest watercolour and acrylic paintings – www.facebook.com/PaintingsbyCB. He also has an Etsy page – www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ArtbyChrisBoulton.

“I have never formally trained as an artist but have been painting watercolours all of my adult life. I enjoy doing this “on the go” but having lived a busy and active life I seldom had the time to paint, even on holidays we were always engaged in various sporting activities. The last time I added to my “collection” was after heart surgery in the late 90’s. Recently, with a grown-up family, the dubious benefits of the Covid lockdown and enforced rest due to cancer treatment I have had lots more time, always carrying my watercolour kit with me and trying to capture images when I can. If not, I simply take a photo and paint it later. As you may imagine, I have lots of photos taken over the years I haven’t painted yet!

After a diagnosis of bowel cancer in November 2020, the outlook wasn’t great but thanks to the support of an excellent medical team and being a lucky one, after two periods of treatment this has improved considerably.

The net proceeds [from the sale of my artwork] will go to Pelican Cancer Foundation and My Cancer My Choices.”

(Photograph by Newbury Today)

PREVIOUS ART EXHIBITIONS

  • Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th December 2021, 10 – 4pm at The Base, Greenham Business Park, RG19 6HN.
  • Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd May 2021, 10 – 4pm at Westridge Studio, Star Lane, Highclere, RG20 9QS.

18-19/12/2021 – “I have well over 200 images painted over the last couple of years and some from before. Over 120 are featured in my December 2021 exhibition. The images in this catalogue are very small (there were so many to fit in!) and don’t really do the paintings justice, they also look so much better mounted. Do come along to meet me and see them at The Base at Greenham Business Park if you can. All the originals are for sale and prints too. The net proceeds will go to Pelican Cancer Foundation and My Cancer My Choices.

“I have my own style and know this won’t be to everyone’s liking. I hope you will enjoy looking even if not buying but please do buy if you can, to support two charities that do so much to help with the fight against cancer. Originals are a minimum of £30 and prints a fixed price of £15, both mounted but feel free to pay more if you wish!” – Charity Art Exhibition Catalogue Dec 2021

21-22/05/2022 –“I am delighted and proud to say that as I am now an accredited artist this is part of Open Studios West Berkshire and North Hampshire. For this exhibition I have had a primary focus on producing several very large images painted in acrylics on canvas, all of mountains or views from the mountains – I have really enjoyed doing these and I have to say are best seen in person. The images here simply don’t do them justice! All of the paintings are on canvas and available as originals only. I am supporting two charities again – Pelican Cancer Foundation and My Cancer My Choices.

I hope you enjoy my paintings and will be interested in buying in aid of my chosen charities but of course I am more than happy for you to just take a look. Those that are already sold are noted in this catalogue and will be clearly marked during the exhibition. For all the paintings there is a “reserve” price I have in mind but I hope buyers will be generous. I really won’t be offended by any offer, so if you are interested contact me or talk to me at the exhibition. I will also be painting another large mountain image over the weekend of the exhibition so please come along and see the creation of a new picture in real-time…” – Charity Art Exhibition Catalogue May 2022

Darts tournament organised by school prefects

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The Boys at Tonbridge organise various charitable fundraising events throughout the year, for various charities. We were delighted to be picked by the school prefects who organised a darts tournament named “Darts with the Praes”.  They raised a brilliant £365.04. Thank you for choosing Pelican and supporting our work.

Annual Basingstoke Colorectal Symposium

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Pelican was able to hold its first in-person event since the pandemic started, our annual Basingstoke Colorectal Symposium. The attendees really enjoyed the event and we heard from some great speakers talking about their research that had been funded by Pelican. This event demonstrated how important it is for us to continue our research and education programmes to improve the treatment of bowel cancer.

It was a joy to be able to revive the traditional ‘attendees on the stairs’ photograph.

 

Nikki & Phoebe – Marching through March

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Nikki and Phoebe set the challenge to walk 10,000 steps a day throughout March –10,000 steps was no walk in the park, much, much longer in fact as both spent much of their day sat behind a desk.  Their challenge was in support of their friend Chloe, was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer in 2020, and received treatment at Basingstoke and North Hampshire hospital.

Despite being dogged by Covid they have managed to hit their daily target of 10,000 steps a day, which is tremendous. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nikki-allen7.  Phoebe also wrote a poem about their challenge.

Thank you for supporting Pelican Cancer Foundation – keep marching!

Kristen’s running 30 miles in January

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Kristen set herself the personal challenge of running 30 miles in the month of January, in support of her friend Chloe, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in March 2020.

Kristen set up a JustGiving page and steadily ticked off the miles (despite of the rather cold and wet, wintery weather we experienced!). Kristen raised a magnificent £1,040.00 + £195.00 Gift Aid via her fundraising page.

Thank you.

 

Milestones in Managing and Curing Rectal Cancer – online access

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A series of short films presented by Professor Bill Heald & Mr Brendan Moran in discussion with peers.

Pelican Cancer Foundation is proud to launch Milestones in Managing and Curing Rectal Cancer, a series of short films presented by Professor Bill Heald and Mr Brendan Moran.

Professor Heald & Mr Moran will be in discussion with colleagues ​​from across the country about the many contributions that have been made by the multidisciplinary cancer team, to develop and improve the treatment and care of cancer patients. The ​films will be freely available to all our clinical colleagues, but we hope ​​they will ​also be of interest to you our supporters. Please note that these films are aimed at our clinical audience and will contain some ​live surgery.

The series of films will acknowledge the developments in the medical research and education that has improved surgery for bowel cancer and its associated secondary disease. Pelican has worked tirelessly over the years and remains dedicated to helping those with bowel cancer live well for longer.

For updates, follow us on Twitter or check back on our website.

 

Festive wishes

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Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Our office will be closed from Friday, 23rd December 2022, until Tuesday, 3rd January 2023.

Pelican Research presented at International meeting

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Pelican supported a research study that was undertaken by Miss Caoimhe Walsh, a Surgical Registrar based at Hampshire Hospitals. Miss Walsh presented the findings of this research at the Upper Gastrointestinal Congress in Belfast in October 2021, where she was awarded the UGI Congress Oral Presentation Prize for the best presentation in the Liver Free Paper Session.

The study was undertaken by the Basingstoke Hepatobiliary team in conjunction with the Haematology team in Basingstoke and the Biochemistry Department at Surrey University. Its specific focus was to understand the changes in blood clotting that occur before, during and immediately after liver surgery for bowel cancer secondaries.

Historically, doctors understood that patients undergoing liver surgery had a higher risk of bleeding after surgery and so no drugs were given to prevent clotting. This study changed that view as it demonstrated that this particular group of patients are at increased risk of clotting just before surgery, particularly if they have to undergo a lengthy, complex operation on the liver. The study findings therefore recommend that patients should be given drugs to prevent clotting pre-surgery to avoid the risk of major clots that can cause significant medical problems, for example if a clot moves to the heart or lungs.

Miss Walsh also presented the findings at a research meeting held in Pelican’s base in Basingstoke. The meeting included Rt. Hon. Professor the Lord Kakkar, an internationally-renowned expert on thrombosis (blood clotting), who emphasised the importance of the findings from this study.

Huge congratulations to everyone involved in this study.

Nikki bakes festive treats

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For the last three years Nikki has baked mince pies for Peaberry Coffee in December. They were available in return for a donation in the Pelican pot. However, this year due to the pandemic, she switched to bagging up her festive treats and set up a JustGiving page for any donations – www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nikki-mincepies. She collected a superb £120 and we are very grateful for her continuing support.

Thank you

Give as you live

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Every time you shop online you could raise FREE ££’s for us! It takes 2 minutes to sign up to GiveasyouLive and they’ll turn a percentage of everything you buy into a donation to us.

From holidays and travel, to clothing and gifts, you can raise hundreds of pounds from your everyday shopping, all at no extra cost to you. Simply sign up for an account and start shopping to make a difference for Pelican Cancer Foundation!

? It’s free
? There’s a handy app
?️ There are over 5,500 stores!

https://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/pelicancancer

Jackie and Anna’s New Year’s Day Dip

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Jackie and Anna took part in the Lyme Regis Plunge on New Year’s Day. They braved the cold and choppy sea for an exhilarating dip, all in aid of Pelican.

The pair raised £230 and we are in awe of their cold fundraising challenge.

Thank you ever so much.

Trustee honoured in New Year Honours

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Pelican Cancer Foundation Trustee, Myrddin (Merv) Rees, received the OBE in recognition of his services to liver cancer surgery in the New Year Honours.  Merv is a Consultant Hepatobiliary Surgeon and pioneered liver resection, the surgical removal of a part of the liver, in the 1980’s at Basingstoke & North Hampshire Hospital, at a time when many medical professionals said that liver resection could not be done.  Merv learnt about the bloodless operating technique from an eminent surgeon in Germany, Johannes Scheele, and brought the practice to Basingstoke.  His development led to dramatically increased survival rates for patients with liver secondaries, with well over 3,000 patients operated on to date.

Liver cancer is usually a secondary condition that has spread to the organ from a primary cancer in another part of the body, including the bowel.  Merv has been a key part of creating the surgical expertise in treating bowel cancer and its associated secondary spread in Basingstoke and is a huge supporter of the work Pelican does.

Merv is always the first to acknowledge that he couldn’t have achieved all of this without many colleagues including his surgical and other medical colleagues, along with many clinical, admin and support teams over the years.

Merv has given his time generously, both professionally and as a Trustee, to many projects over the years and we are thrilled that his pioneering work has been recognised in this way.  Pelican is very proud to be associated with such amazing clinical colleagues, of whom Merv is an outstanding example.  Huge congratulations Merv.

November 2020 – COVID-19 update from Pelican Cancer Foundation

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Our small team is now starting to get back to work, from their own homes, and will be doing their best to get Pelican up and running again so that we can continue to deliver our mission of driving innovation and development in bowel cancer, focusing particularly on advancing surgical treatment.

While, sadly, Pelican is still not able to undertake its prime mission – to educate clinicians across the UK to improve the treatment of bowel cancer, we are exploring the possibility of delivering online training.  At the same time, clinical staff across the NHS continue to work extremely hard to treat all patients who need attention, which includes all those with Covid-19.

The Trustees of Pelican Cancer Foundation reluctantly decided to furlough our brilliant team during the earlier peak of the pandemic because they were not able to carry out their normal roles, including organising education programmes and fundraising events.  We also offered our office space to the hospital in Basingstoke so that administrative staff could work there and free up space for the clinical services in the hospital.

We are working on a path through this difficult time for Pelican so that we can continue to work with clinicians throughout the NHS.  We have started to explore the potential to deliver our education programmes online so that NHS staff do not need to travel to continue to learn.  A new direction for Pelican!

If you would like to donate to help us develop this new direction, please Click here