Welcome to our April 2024 monthly briefing. The information in this newsletter has been customised for you, our key group contacts, to use in your own newsletters and communications with your group members.
We hope you find it useful.
We hope this months briefing finds you well, and managing to find some sunshine betwixt the April showers?
Its been a super busy few weeks at Tackle central support , with trips to meet groups in Canterbury and Cornwall and our annual conference all in the last few weeks, our time has been stretched to the limit, so apologies for the lateness of this Monthly Briefing.
A huge thank you to all of you who came to our conference on Tuesday, and especially to our panellists who shared information about their groups. With group leaders from as far south as Cornwall and as north as Glasgow, there was a real buzz in the room as around 80 group leaders and organisers came together to learn , share and network.
The focus of the day was to shine a light on the breadth of peer support delivered by our amazing network of support groups, and to look at how we can amplify our value to people not yet engaging with peer support groups. It was very humbling to hear about all the work you do trying to ensure that nobody has to face prostate cancer alone.
The photos above are a small taster of whats to come. And next month we shall produce a fuller report of the day. If you were there, and have any photos of the day, why not pop over to the Tackle Support Group Leaders Facebook page and post them there.
Do get in touch with any questions on any aspect on the content or comments about how we can make next years conference even better.
This months briefing asks important questions about support for partners from within your group, announces our recently launched Best Practice Guidance for support groups, as well as highlights PCSA Kent whom I visited a few weeks ago.
We look forward to seeing you at the next Support Group Leaders meeting (for anyone in an organising role) on May 7th at 11.00am, and in the meantime, please get in touch if we can help you in any way.
We are looking at how we can support all of the Partner Support Groups in our network. Caroline Prance who runs the National Partners PCSG and Alison Hanson who runs the Kidderminster and Worcestershire Partners group are keen to hear from group leaders who have specific provision for providing support to partners, friends and family. If your group supports partners in either a separate group or activity, then please get in touch.
This months Hot Topics contains slides from the recent CHAPS Conference as well as dates for events
Download this month’s Hot Topics here
At our Support Group Leaders meeting next month we shall be focusing on some of the aspects of running groups about which we receive many queries, including GDPR, safeguarding and data collection. The next meeting will be at 11.00am on Tuesday May 7th and is open to anyone in an organising role in one of our support groups.
Best Practice Guidance
At our AGM last year our members voted overwhelmingly to introduce a Code of Conduct for Support Groups within our network. After a year of working with group leaders we have come up with our Best Practice Guidelines. We hope this simple set of guiding principles will serve to ensure that people accessing support groups across the country will receive the good quality support that we all strive to give to people living with and impacted by Prostate Cancer. At our conference earlier this week, we launched the guidance, and you can find a copy by following the link below.
We know that several group leaders are keen for us to replicate the Quality Awards scheme that was previously run by PCUK, and this is something we aim to do as our capacity grows. Your input and queries regarding these guidelines are invaluable to us, so we strongly encourage you to reach out with any comments, questions or if you would like to help us to support other group leaders to reach any aspect of the guidelines.
Download the Best Practice Guidance for Group Leaders
Prostate Cancer Research have launched a nationwide petition calling on major political parties to include a commitment to prostate cancer screening in their manifestos.
Every year over 13,000 men die of prostate cancer – that’s one every 40 minutes. This is a national tragedy. But it doesn’t need to be this way. If prostate cancer is caught early, it is almost always curable.
Right now, Labour and the Conservatives are busy finalising their manifestos, deciding what to include, and what not to include, if they win the next election. We need to tell them that it is time they take prostate cancer seriously.
Will you join Tackle and sign Prostate Cancer Research’s petition and help make prostate cancer screening a national priority?
Since 2006, PCSA Kent have been hosting monthly meetups near Canterbury. Their mission? To shine a light on prostate cancer. They do this with by running various engaging events like supermarket outreach events and community presentations. But that’s not all – they’re also champions at fundraising, making a big difference where it counts. Right now, they’re in talks with their local NHS trust, hoping to provide a new piece of medical equipment for them.
