Our Works
LATEST:15th August 2008 - Southport Lions Donate £1,000 towards cancer equipment
The
following Press Release was issued today by Matthew King, Public
Relations Manager for Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust.
Neil
McQuaid and Chris Leather from the Southport Lions Club came to
Southport & Formby District General Hospital last week to present
Dr Sun Myint with a large cheque for £1,000 towards the purchase of a
‘Papillon’ machine.
Dr
Myint said, “We are very grateful to the Southport Lions for their
donation, these machines are very expensive, so all donations help. The
machines are used to treat certain types of rectal cancer without the
need for major surgery. This is clearly much better for the cancer
patient as they do not have the added trauma of surgery with its
associated risks.”
The
photograph shows, from left to right, Christine Sheridan, Cancer
Services Manager, Southport & Formby DGH, Dr Sun Myint, Lion Neil
McQuaid and Lion Chris Leather, of Southport Lions Club
Dr Myint explained: “Up until now there has been little interest in developing non-invasive treatments for rectal cancer except at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology where we are committed to minimally invasive treatments to give patients more choice.
“The treatments we offer are only suitable for patients whose cancer has been discovered early and until now; there have not been many patients in this category. However, with increasingly sophisticated diagnostic techniques, and more screening, we predict that the number being diagnosed with early stage rectal cancer is about to explode. As a result of this, interest in our work from cancer specialists across the UK and abroad, is growing.”
The ‘Papillon’ technique
Dr Myint uses the ‘Papillon’ technique to treat early stage rectal cancer with no evidence of lymph node spread. He studied the technique in Lyon, France, where it was first developed by Professor Jean Papillon and Professor Jean-Pierre Gerard. This is a form of radical contact radiotherapy which directly targets the tumour.
Dr Myint runs a specialist joint clinic in The Liverpool Linda McCartney Cancer Centre to assess patients with early low rectal tumours and offer either of these local treatment options. Often they combine these techniques which achieve over 80% cure rates according to the research undertaken at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology during the past ten years.
Welfare Works 2006-7
During the Lions Year which ran from 1st July 2006 to 30th June 2007, Southport Lions Club distributed more than £9,000 to worthy local and other causes. As many of these donations were relatively small amounts to individuals and for individual needs, we cannot identify them, but on behalf of the recipients, we would like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to our fundraising events. Without your support we could not do what we do, but please, be assured, that every penny we raise for welfare and charity purposes goes solely to those purposes.
Southport Lions is a fundraising organisation, but we do not raise funds without specific purposes in mind, neither do we raise funds on behalf of other charities. Some while ago, the Club members made a decision that we would try to allocate funds to three different categories of need.
We try to allocate 10% of funds raised to International Projects. As a Club, we do not ourselves try to run any projects overseas, but provide funding for projects run by Lions' organisations in areas of specific need. As part of this commitment, we have supported eye camps in India, the development of water resources in rural Africa, and the international student exchange programmes run by Lions International. In 2005 we undertook an extended sponsorship of Katie Drury, an ex-student from KGV College, who decided that she absolutely had to help the victims of the Asian Tsunami. Read her Tsunami REPORT, and be impressed.
We try to allocate 50% of funds raised to local Good Causes. As a prominent part of the local voluntary sector, special needs and requirements are referred to Southport Lions by a number of public and private organisations. We can often provide top-up funding where other sources have dried up, or perhaps where other sources cannot provide at all. In recent years we have provided an electric scooter to a local man, computer equipment to a craft centre for the learning-disabled, toys to a creche catering for the children of working and disadvantaged mothers, an inflatable bed to a multiply disabled girl, travel expenses for a local girl who needs to travel a considerable distance for specialist remedial treatment, start-up funding for a disability self-help group, and much more. Inevitably, much of what we do must remain private to protect the individuals concerned. We hope that you will understand why we can't give precise details. However, you can see details of some of our Works on the PROJECTS page.
And we try to allocate 40% of funds raised to a local Major Project. In February 2004 we launched Chemocare, our biggest and most ambitious Club Project to date. Our aim was to raise £30,000 to assist in equipping and refurbishing the Medical and Oncology Day Unit at the Southport & Formby District General Hospital. We more than achieved our target, and the full story of what we did, and a little of how we did it, can be seen on our CHEMOCARE page. More recently, we have bought eight new syringe drivers, at a cost of more than £5,000 for the Southport & Formby District General Hospital, as part of a programme to standardise on one particular type of equipment throughout the region. And we will shortly be announcing the start of a new Major Project to benefit the Southport area!
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