Support group for asbestos disease patients and carers meet in Bury St Edmunds

Patients, volunteers and clinical professionals attended the latest monthly meeting of the Anglia Asbestos Disease Support Group held at Beacon House, Bury St. Edmunds, on Tuesday 17 May.

The meeting was hosted by Ashtons Legal who are sponsoring this group in Suffolk and Norfolk in association with Mesothelioma UK, the principal Mesothelioma/Asbestosis charity in UK based at the University Hospitals of Leicester.

Contributors to this latest meeting included Linda Addison, a representative of the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Community Healthcare team, based in Sudbury, and Michael Wangermann, an Industrial Injury solicitor at Ashtons Legal who specialises in Mesothelioma/Asbestos related claims. The topics for discussion were home care for patients with acute medical problems, and the present state of legislation surrounding the diagnosis of Pleural Plaques and Pleural Thickening, both asbestos related conditions.

Brian Wallis, a Mesothelioma UK Ambassador gave a report on the recent iMig International Conference held in Birmingham and the parallel annual Patient & Carer Day Conference. This was the first time that the United Kingdom had hosted the global mesothelioma/asbestos disease forum and over five hundred delegates attended from across the world. The patient carer day attracted nearly two hundred people and a cross section of nursing and clinical professionals.

An ‪Asbestosis patient who attended the meeting expressed his gratitude to the group for running the sessions: “There is nothing else like this group in the area where support is offered by others with similar conditions. Finding somewhere to go where others understand fills a big gap for me.” Comments like this illustrate how important the group is to those within the community affected by asbestos related diseases.

Mesothelioma/Asbestosis is a disease for which there is no known cure. The disease has always been preventable and no victim went to work expecting to eventually be told that they had an incurable disease which would take their life – as a result of their occupation. Mesothelioma UK is raising it’s profile in the East by the introduction of this support network and it is intended that before the start of the annual holidays that there will be active support groups in Norwich and Brentwood, in addition to Bury St. Edmunds.

Patients, carers and healthcare professionals will always be welcome at the meetings which are free to attend. Click here for further information about forthcoming meetings, alternatively follow the group on social media: www.facebook.com/angliaasbestos , Twitter @AngliaAsbestos. You can also telephone Brian Wallis on 07938 018601.