Report: Medical Lecture & SGM - 16 October 2004

By:  Noel Hawks  Sunday, 8. August 2004

A special general meeting was held to consider changes to the ADSHG constitution. It was followed by a Medical Lecture by Professor Russell Jones, Royal Surrey County Hospital, entitled “Everything you want to know about Addison's". 

 Saturday 16 October 2004

Special General Meeting &

Medical Seminar

The Forum (functions room), The Stoke Hotel,
103 Stoke Road, Guildford GU1 4JN

Many group members, family and friends turned up for the Special General Meeting, with some people having travelled from as far away as Wales, Derbyshire and Yorkshire.  More chairs had to be fetched from the back of the hall to accommodate everyone. The meeting opened a little late at as we kept hanging on for ‘another couple of minutes’ for Professor David Russell-Jones to arrive. We had been informed that he could be, in the style of a real professor, a little absent minded at times and there was some concern that he might have lost his way or forgotten all about us.

The group’s Chair, Katherine White, welcomed everyone and, just in case anyone was in any doubt at all about being to lead a ‘normal’ full and active life with Addison’s, she read out committee member Nick Willson’s apologies for absence, owing to his skydiving activities in New Zealand.  (No he didn’t need any extra hydrocortisone, despite free-falling out of a plane from a great height).  Our President, Deana Kenward, thanked everyone for attending and was presented with a small token of the group’s appreciation of her twenty years of hard work and dedication to the ADSHG. Deana started the group in 1984 with ‘a pen and some paper’, a year after being diagnosed with Addison’s Disease, and it has now grown to more than 750 members.

The main purpose of this meeting was to adopt some amendments to the ADSHG constitution and to clarify some technicalities on the structure of the committee. This was at the request of the Charities Commission, which had required further clarification on our “Aims & Objectives” before it is able to grant us charitable status. These amendments were put to the vote and the members present agreed to adopt them by a unanimous decision.   We will, hopefully, soon be granted our charitable status.

Katherine then answered some questions from the audience while simultaneously glancing nervously at the time… still no sign of Professor Russell-Jones. Only half an hour after the scheduled start time he arrived, apologised, set up his own portable laptop and projector, and launched into a lively and fascinating account of “Everything you want to know about Addison’s”, interspersed with questions and answers. Of particular interest (to me anyway) was that he used the fact he had got held up in traffic on the way to the meeting and then been unable to find a parking space to illustrate how someone with Addison’s might react to a similarly stressful situation. Should they reach for some extra tablets or not? Probably not necessary, as pure adrenaline would have seen them through.  His answer to my lovely daughter’s question concerning the ability of people with Addison’s to consume alcohol raised a laugh at least. Hadn’t she realised what I’d been doing down the pub all these years? The Professor’s advice was not to worry about it and to enjoy life. I sincerely hope that we all follow his insightful wisdom. Mine’s a Guinness thanks…

Professor Russell-Jones then gave a demonstration of the emergency injection technique. This was followed by practical demonstrations for anyone interested with me and my daughter (in the absence of an Endocrine Nurse – sorry about that) handing out syringes, saline, needles and oranges and explaining how it was done. My daughter had come to the meeting expressly to get instruction on the technique and I think we can take this as a measure of just how good the Professor’s demonstration was and of how straightforward the technique actually is to master. I also lumbered her with selling raffle tickets – thank you all for your generosity.

Much needed cups of tea and coffee were hurriedly enjoyed as the organisers for the hall politely attempted to clear up and prepare for the function that evening. There’s never enough time is there? Thank you all for coming. A big thank you to everyone who helped and special thanks to Professor David Russell-Jones. I hope you all found the afternoon as enjoyable and as educational as I did.