ALBURY-WODONGA BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUP T he Albury-Wodonga Breast Cancer Support Group meets on the third Friday of each month, 10am to noon, at the Mitta Mitta Canoe Club building, Noreuil Park, Albury, a confidential and caring meeting, sharing knowledge and experiences and offering comfort and friendship. Coffee and tea are supplied and you can bring nibbles to share if you wish. PLEASE JOIN US The Tit Tattler would not be possible without the generosity of Conway Printing at Jindera who print the newsletter without charge. Thanks also to Kellie and Kelvin Davies of K2 Design who donate their time and skills maintaining our website and providing technical support. And thank you to our contributors whose input helps us to pass on so much important information, advice or just something to make us laugh. 5,6 March Victorian State Titles-Dragon Boating Docklands 18 March AWBCSG Meeting 10am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club 22 March LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER– to enrol contact Rosemary Creed 02 6021 3604 23March– 7 April National Titles - Dragon Boating then World Club Crew Championships Adelaide 15 April AWBCSG MEETING 10 am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club 30 April Brave Hearts Dragon Boat 10th Birthday Albury TAFE Poole Street 3 May LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER– to enrol contact Rosemary Creed 02 6021 3604 20 May AWBCSG MEETING 10 am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club Biggest Morning Tea DATES FOR THE DIARY The Celebration Garden at Belvoir Park Wodonga had a splash of pink on Saturday 14th November, 5 years on from when the garden was officially opened by Councillor Anna Speedie. To celebrate this milestone Brave Hearts and Albury Wodonga Breast Cancer Support Group took the opportunity to hold a Mini Field of Women to show support and pay tribute to those affected by breast cancer and to also remember those lost to the disease. The garden came about as a result of a misunderstanding about a request to have pink ladies planted at Woodland Grove for a Mini Field of Women. With the support of Wodonga Council, and major sponsors Mars Petcare, Hume Building Society and Murray Valley Private Hospital as well as community volunteers the garden and statue have provided a beautiful and significant place to commemorate loved ones. It allows groups, families or individuals to come and celebrate survival or reflect and remember those who have lost their fight against cancer. Hearts were also planted to remember those who have lost their battle with a cancer other than breast, in particular Brave Heart Denise Arnel. Celebration Garden 5 years on
Transcript
ALBURY-WODONGA BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUP
T he Albury-Wodonga Breast Cancer Support Group meets on the third Friday of each month, 10am to noon, at the Mitta Mitta Canoe Club building, Noreuil Park, Albury, a confidential and caring meeting, sharing
knowledge and experiences and offering comfort and friendship. Coffee and tea are supplied and you can bring nibbles to share if you wish.
PLEASE JOIN US
The Tit Tattler would not be possible without the generosity of Conway Printing at Jindera who print the newsletter without charge.
Thanks also to Kellie and Kelvin Davies of K2 Design who donate their time and skills maintaining our website and providing technical support.
And thank you to our contributors whose input helps us to pass on so much important information, advice or just something to make us laugh.
5,6 March Victorian State Titles-Dragon Boating Docklands
18 March AWBCSG Meeting 10am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club
22 March LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER– to enrol contact Rosemary Creed 02 6021 3604
23March– 7 April National Titles - Dragon Boating then World Club Crew Championships Adelaide
15 April AWBCSG MEETING 10 am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club
30 April Brave Hearts Dragon Boat 10th Birthday Albury TAFE Poole Street
3 May LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER– to enrol contact Rosemary Creed 02 6021 3604
20 May AWBCSG MEETING 10 am Mitta Mitta Canoe Club Biggest Morning Tea
DATES FOR THE DIARY
The Celebration Garden at Belvoir Park Wodonga had a splash of pink on
Saturday 14th November, 5 years on from when the garden was officially
opened by Councillor Anna Speedie. To celebrate this milestone Brave Hearts
and Albury Wodonga Breast Cancer Support Group took the opportunity to hold
a Mini Field of Women to show support and pay tribute to those affected by
breast cancer and to also remember those lost to the disease. The garden
came about as a result of a misunderstanding about a request to have pink
ladies planted at Woodland Grove for a Mini Field of Women. With the support
of Wodonga Council, and major sponsors Mars Petcare, Hume Building Society
and Murray Valley Private Hospital as well as community volunteers the garden
and statue have provided a beautiful and significant place to commemorate
loved ones. It allows groups, families or individuals to come and celebrate
survival or reflect and remember those who have lost their fight against
cancer. Hearts were also planted to remember those who have lost their battle
with a cancer other than breast, in particular Brave Heart Denise Arnel.
Celebration Garden
5 years on
hydrotherapy pool every Wednesday at 12.30pm. For women who have or have had breast cancer, the exercises are gentle and focus mainly on lymphatic drainage. The format for the class is to meet and change in time for a 12.30pm start, stretching, gentle exercise using equipment and relaxation to finish. The class ends at 1.30pm The cost is $5.
H ydrotherapy is held at the Albury Base Hospital
CONTACTS
Committee Heather Knott (02) 6059 2314
Robyn Daly (02) 6021 5353
Marg Harrison (02) 6021 4551
Jodie Hart 0410 046 330
Marlene Gibson (02) 6021 6364
Barbara Iverson (02) 6056 1437
Feel free to contact any committee member for information or support.
Hi Everyone, Welcome to 2016 with AWBCSG. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year with family and friends and were able to have a restful break. I have been enjoying the mild summer with not having to try and keep cool and the never ending watering of the garden. I had a
lovely 2 week break away- cruising to New Zealand with my husband to celebrate 5 years since I was diagnosed. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. It only seems like yesterday when I attended my first meeting and received a warm welcome. Belonging to the support group has been wonderful. I have made lots of new friends and it is great to have the support of others who have some understanding of what you are going through and can offer support and ideas to help make the journey easier.
We finished the year with our Christmas Lunch at the Commercial Club, the food was delicious and the day was enjoyed by all those who attended. A big thank you to Robyn for organizing the prizes for the raffle and presenting them beautifully.
A big thank you to these businesses for their generous donation of gift vouchers East Albury IGA - $100, BJ’s Hair Design $65 and Peards Albury $40.
Thank you to those ladies that sold raffle tickets, we raised $366. Congratulations to the raffle winners– 1st Marg Smith, 2nd Brenda Smith, 3rd Helga Doolan.
At our first meeting for the year we had Louise Kaye-Smith come and talk to us about Perfect Again and Perfect Now breast prostheses. If you are interested in a lighter prostheses give Louise a ring and she can show you what is available. We also had the new McGrath Breast Care Nurse Erin Primmer join us. Erin has taken over from Jodie Hart. Jodie is enjoying the flexibility being at home allows, to focus on being a mother, wife and daughter and having time to herself. Our group thanks Jodie for her wonderful work in the MBCN role and look forward to her being able to join us at our meetings. We wish Erin well in her new role and look forward to working closely with her in supporting newly diagnosed women with our Pamper Bag project. Erin works 4 days a week with Thursday's off. Erin lives in Wangaratta with her husband and young son.
Brave Hearts have their annual regatta on the last weekend of February. There is added excitement this year, not only are there more community teams competing but it is 10 years since the wooden dragon boat was completed and launched with further celebrations being held on April 30th. Until our winter edition, take care.
Heather Knott
LOOK GOOD… FEEL BETTER for 2016
Sessions will be held on the following Tuesdays 9.15am – 12 noon in Wodonga
March 22nd, May 3rd, June 14th Please register at least 3 weeks prior to
the session you wish to attend. Contact Rosemary Creed 02 6021 3604 or email on
I haven’t lost my mind.. Half of it just wandered off and the other half went looking for it.
Wrinkles mean you laughed, grey hair means you cared and scars mean you lived!
Perfect Now Breast Forms– available locally
After having a mastectomy in early 2014, a friend told Louise about Perfect Again, a company run by Julie Brand, a woman who had a mastectomy many years prior. Julie had imported technology from Italy to design customised breast prostheses, incorporating 3D printing technology. Louise visited her studio in Portarlington and came away with a breast prosthesis, that was lightweight, comfortable and matched her other breast in size and shape. Last year Julie developed a range of ready to wear breast prostheses, called Perfect Now, based on the measurements of the woman who had come through her door for the Perfect Again breast prostheses. In December 2015 Louise became a consultant for the North East region in the Perfect Now breast forms. They come in a range of sizes, from size 10 to 20, in various cup sizes, in both left side and right side, and also have 2 different backs, one a flat back and the other a more concave back. They are extremely lightweight, and are made of foam rubber with a polyurethane outer layer, making them waterproof, and they have TGA approval. Louise is able to do consultations in the customer’s home or any private and suitable setting. Critical to the consultation is having a good fitting bra that provides full cup support. The Perfect Now breast forms cost $400 + postage and with the Medicare rebate the customer is entitled to a rebate of $400 every 2 years. Check out the website www.perfect-again.com.au Contact Louise Kaye-Smith on 0408735727 or email: [email protected]
So many happy memories are about to be rekindled as we celebrate the ten year anniversary of a special Brave Hearts Dragon Boat Building Project, that resulted in a beautiful wooden Dragon Boat being launched at the Gateway Lakes on the 9th April, 2006 and the start of a wonderful club, so loved by our community.
Please allow me to reminisce on our memorable history.
Following our very successful calendar - "Brave Hearts, Faces of Love, Courage and Support" that raised over $70,000 in 2005, the participants who were mainly breast cancer survivors, decided to buy a dragon boat. The reason for this was that it had been proven that dragon boating improved the quality of life after breast cancer treatments. These plans changed when the TAFE NSW Riverina Institute Albury Campus, under the adept guidance of Frank Lange, Glen Costin and Norm Peters, offered the women a chance to build the boat themselves. It took nine months to build and these boat builders became the first group of women to ever build a dragon boat. This project also allowed the women to believe in themselves and realise their strengths, recover a sense of adventure, fun and control. After overcoming cancer it seemed that now there was little that was impossible for them to achieve.
This project also introduced dragon boating to our region and the sport has grown so much over the last 10 years. We would however love new members to join us. We are made up of survivors of any type of cancer, family members, workmates and in general, supporters of our cause. We are a fun loving group who have learned to live life to the fullest and love the camaraderie, exercise and support this great team sport encompasses.
We have organised three events to celebrate this special birthday.
1. Firstly the Remembrance Ceremony at our annual Dragon Boat regatta on Saturday 27th February. Our boat builders will once again sit in the boat they built and do a lap of honour after the Remembrance Ceremony on our Corporate and Community Day. 2. There will be a display of the boat building project at the Albury Library Museum Community Wall during the month of April and the boat itself will be on display outside the Library on the day we launched it, Saturday 9th April and the following day Sunday 10th April. 3. Our Celebration Party will be held back where we built our boat at the TAFE on Saturday 30th April, where our boat will take centre stage in the Library Learning Common.
Hope you can come and join in the celebrations
Jenny Black
Ten Year Anniversary of the Brave Hearts Dragon Boat Project
AWBCSG and Brave Hearts Mini Field of Women - Celebrating the 5th Birthday of the
Celebration Rose Garden at Sumsion Gardens on Saturday 14th November. Councillor Anna
Speedie and Brave Hearts President Jenny Black officiated during the formal celebration.
A wonderful Christmas Lunch was enjoyed by AWBCSG member, husbands and friends at the
Commercial Club for our final meeting of the year. A lovely way to finish our 20th year.
BRAVE HEARTS NEWS An extremely busy time for Brave Hearts. We attended the Wagga Regatta on 29th November. Congratulations to
all who participated at Wagga in good team spirit under very trying circumstances. Enough said!
Falls Creek Regatta was 24th January.
What a great weekend! The theme for the
Sat night was Grease the movie.
Many Pink ladies, a sexy Sandy, and a
couple of Dannies, plus a Teen Angel, who
was more a "fallen angel"!
Once again we were beautifully looked
after by Lisa and Nellie at Diana Lodge.
Pink Ribbon Survivors & Supporters 1st
Grand Masters Mixed 20 2nd
Grand Masters Open 20 3rd
Pam, Nerida, Narelle, Maxine and Mira
with the trophies
Congratulations to our special "Drummer
Girl" June Joynson for being the 2015/2016
recipient of the Silver Heart award. Well
deserved!
Jenny Black making the presentation
There is much preparation now for our own regatta on Feb 27th and 28th. A record number of Community teams to
race on the Saturday, along with the Survivor teams, and a 2km race for sporting teams. On Saturday we also have
the Remembrance Ceremony which is always very moving. Sunday racing will consist of a number of sporting teams.
This will be our first on the Eastern side of the lake. Fingers crossed for great success. The results will be in the
Winter tit tattler.
The weekend after our regatta Brave Hearts will be competing in the State Titles at Docklands. Then at the end of
March, Brave Hearts will be competing in Adelaide at the Nationals and Club Crew World Championships. Members of
Brave Hearts will also be part of the Victorian Regional Team competing in Adelaide in the State v State
Brave Hearts have been invited to enter a team in the Club
Crew World Championships to be held in Adelaide in April. For
our club as a whole, this is a very exciting event and we are
thrilled that our team will be taking our name and our message
to the world stage. This event is world class paddling at the
highest standard and we agreed at the beginning of the season
that our team would be selected by the coaches. After much
consideration the following fifteen people have been selected
to represent our club. Mike Beazley (coach) Nerida Millward
Reid (Drummer) Murray Black, John Black, Sandy Boyd, Mark Clifford, Chris Gabriel, Kevin Gabriel, Narelle Haining,
Mira Kapur, LJ Laing and Angelika Wellnitz.
Sunday is set aside for pleasure cruising. Come along and experience dragon boating.
Contact Pauline on 0408 692 935 for times.
Cheers Mel
THOUGHTS, PRAYERS and RAINBOWS
For any suffering loss, grief, sadness, any illness, just not feeling good or awaiting results, our thoughts, prayers and rainbows go out to you.
Gail S, Sue S, Chris S, Brenda K, Di and Ian R, Elizabeth and Ray S, Kerry A, Di L and Vicki H
If you know of anyone who could use a thought, prayer and a rainbow, please let us know so they can be included in the next newsletter.
‘Love can bridge all distances.
Surely the substance of rainbows is love.’
Holbrook/Culcairn Cancer Support Group
Meetings are held on the first Monday of each month from 1pm alternating between Holbrook and Culcairn. 7 March 1pm at Culcairn 4 April 1pm at Holbrook 2 May 1pm at Culcairn
Enquiries to Judy 0409 445 051 or Sharyn 0428 566 802
Lymphatic Drainage and Remedial Massage. Paul Nixon is a registered remedial massage therapist with Casey-Smith Method of complex lymphatic therapy in the treatment of lymphedema, Certificate IV in Health (massage), oncology massage 1 & 2, lymphatic drainage level 1 & 2 and a certificate of assessment and compliance for NSW Health to work within the hospital system. Paul has been working in the Ovens and Murray Valley region since 2002 and has appointments available at Bright Sports Centre 0408 579 404 and Naturally Dynamic Health 577 Englehart St Albury 02 6021 0557
Lymphoedema Massage Therapist. Sue Butcher is a registered lymphoedema massage therapist and has rooms at 710 Young St Albury and 15 McInnes St Holbrook. Sue can be contacted on 0427 369 570 or [email protected] massageresults.com.au
Border Wellness Circle is held the 2nd & 4th Thursday 10.30am- 3pm, in the Boardroom of Murray Valley Private Hospital, Nordsvan Drv, Wodonga . Women who have experienced any form of cancer are welcome to come along and enjoy complimentary therapies, self care activities as well as craft and pamper days. $2.50 covers lunch. Come along for a fun day of relaxation and friendship March 10th and 24th, April 14th and 28th, May 12th and 26th, June 9th and 23rd. For more details contact Anthea 0438 978 795
Marriage is like a
w o r k s h o p The husband works T h e w i f e s h o p s
Our appreciation A big thankyou goes to Sigrid Brown who has for the last 12 years conducted 2 Encore sessions a year for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Sigrid has decided to retire and is looking forward to pursuing other interests. We would also like to thank Barbara Watson who has assisted Sigrid with the running of the sessions. From all breast cancer survivors who were made so welcome at Encore, we thank you both very much for the time and effort you put in to the running of Encore in Albury and we wish you both well in your future pursuits.
Please advise if your mailing details are incorrect or if you do not wish to receive this newsletter. The newsletter can be emailed to you or you can access it from our website.
Have you visited our website lately? You can check out the calendar for details of our next meeting, and in the section ‘all the latest news’, you can subscribe to the newsletter and organise to be
notified when the website has been updated . Log in at http://awbcsg.com
The aim of the Albury-Wodonga Breast Cancer Support Group is to provide a confidential and caring meeting place where a group of women who have or who have had breast cancer can share knowledge, information and experiences. We can give and receive comfort, friendship and be a source of hope and acceptance to other women on their journey.
If undelivered
Please return to:
A–W BCSG
4 Armstrong Terrace
West Wodonga 3690
WISE WORDS Life is like a camera… Focus on what’s important. Capture the good times. Develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out– take another shot.
Walk and Talk members Heather Knott, Joan Blackwood and Eileen Radomski
and Eileen’s daughter Bridget after Sunday 24th February City2City Run Walk
