Hope in all areas, from mental health to cancer
Facing mental health problems is part of most people’s lives, says The Book of Hope (Pan Macmillan, £14.99, a collection of 101 accounts of human strength and resilience, compiled by Jonny Benjamin and Britt Pflüger, mental health campaigners and authors of The Stranger on the Bridge.
One section, by Professor Miranda Wolpert, reminds us that, if we are facing mental health challenges, we need not feel this is “strange or unusual”. Researchers following large, mixed groups of people over many years have found the majority reported thoughts, feelings and behaviours that put them in the category of having mental health problems at some time in their lives.
However, she goes on to say that, for most people, mental health problems do not stay at an extreme level for a prolonged period and there may be many routes through — when researchers gathered details of coping methods among young people living with anxiety and depression, they found more than 100 suggestions, from swimming to sleep hygiene, pets to peer support.
These are just a few of the reasons to hope, set out in this inspiring and moving collection of personal experiences. It is an excellent resource, too, if you are opening a conversation with someone about their mental health.
Benjamin and Pflüger have brought together a diverse range of voices, including politicians, Olympic athletes, celebrities and charity leaders. The subjects covered are wide-ranging — from severe depression to eating disorders and much more — but all writers share a profound message of hope — hope that things will get better. The Book of Hope invites us to no longer feel alone and will help readers to connect with and learn from other people’s journeys of recovery.
If you are living with mental health challenges, it’s possible that some of the material might be triggering, so choose a time to read the book when there is support on hand. Or, if you are supporting a relative or friend with a mental health problem, you could pre-read the book and select the most helpful passages.
MYELOMA
This is Myeloma Awareness week and the charity Myeloma UK has been focusing on symptom awareness. Almost a third of people with myeloma (bone marrow cancer) are diagnosed through an emergency route and half have to wait over five months before they get the right diagnosis. Symptoms may include pain, bone disease, fatigue, kidney disease and recurring infection. There are now many effective treatments to allow people to live well with myeloma but early diagnosis is important. More information at myeloma.org.uk.
OVARIAN CANCER
NHS England is commissioning a national ovarian cancer audit — a
game-changing exercise that has the potential to improve outcomes for women diagnosed with the disease.
Ovarian Cancer Action has been campaigning for a national government-funded audit for almost a decade. An audit is used in health care to reveal and tackle health inequalities and improve patient outcomes. Statistics are collected from hospitals around the country to identify differences (both good and bad) in the management of patients and, by analysing that data, health professions can make improvements where they’re needed most.
Previous audits have already improved survival rates in lung, bowel, head and neck and oesophagealgastric cancers. Similar progress in ovarian cancer is greatly needed.
The UK has one of the lowest ovarian cancer survival rates in Europe. But the best survival rates around the UK match the highest in the world. There is a huge variation in equal access to the best care across the country and Ovarian Cancer Action believes every woman should have the same chance of early diagnosis and high-quality treatment regardless of where she lives. A government-funded national clinical audit will map out ovarian cancer patients’ journeys around the country from diagnosis onwards, to highlight best practice and identify where we can make the biggest difference to survival.
BABY BOOK
Tribe & Story has produced a luxury baby record book, This is Your Story, designed for parents who want to create a keepsake for themselves and a memento for their child. The 106-page book takes you from pregnancy to five years old, with photo pages and prompts to help you compile your
keepsake. It can be customised to suit any family set-up, for instance for single parents. It comes in a gift box, for £49. See tribeandstory.co.uk
SEPSIS AWARENESS
A new campaign aims to help young people recognise the five early warning signs of a condition which causes 11 million deaths around the world each year. Biomedical engineers from the University of Glasgow have teamed up with the charity Sepsis Research FEAT (Fiona Elizabeth Agnew Trust) to develop an activity pack which aims to help high school pupils better understand the causes and symptoms of sepsis.
Sepsis occurs when the body overreacts to an infection and damages its own vital organs in the process of fighting back.
The activities in the pack will help pupils recognise the five symptoms of sepsis, which can be fatal if not quickly treated. Those symptoms are: unusually high or low temperatures, uncontrolled shivering, confusion, reduced urine production and blotchy limbs.
For more information, see https://www. sepsisresearch.org.uk/ schools/
COVID VACCINE STUDY
People with cancer, inflammatory arthritis, diseases of the kidney or liver or who are having a stem cell transplant may be at increased risk of the more severe complications of Covid-19 infection. But these underlying medical conditions and the treatment such patients receive as part of their care, may weaken the immune system. Current evidence shows people with these medical conditions may not obtain optimal protection from established vaccines. Patients with significant underlying diseases were generally excluded from Covid-19 vaccine studies to date — it is now important to confirm that the Covid-19 vaccines work well in such conditions. A new UK study, “Octave”, will investigate the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines in these patient populations. Researchers will compare results from the study group against groups of people without these diseases, who also received Covid-19 vaccines. Results will help inform how best to vaccinate patients with these conditions. The study is sponsored by the University of Birmingham and is being run by the university’s Cancer Research UK clinical trials unit.
Pupils will learn to recognise five key symptoms of sepsis’