European Parliament Workshop on Rare Cancers

So, there we were on Tuesday morning heading off by Eurostar to Brussels!!

Sam had been invited to the workshop by Glennis Willmott MEP - remember the blog earlier this year? - and was going to speak, along with Prof David Walker, about his journey through cancer so far.

What an impressive building, and how kind everyone was. Sam was impressive too and hardly seemed nervous at all, Debs and Peter from Jimmyteens.tv were also there.
Peter was  giving a talk about his experiences and Debs filmed both him and Sam so will post the link to that at a later date.  

There were quite a number of MEPs in attendance and I hope they listened to the message and try to persuade the drug companies to do more research into drugs and dosages for use in child cancers. It is worrying that the dosages used have not been designed purely for use by children and as a parent I know the worry that can cause. It is important to use what is best and most effective of course, and there is obviously not the incentive to develop drugs purely for childhood/rare cancers as, by their nature they are less common than those in adults, but we need more specifics when treating children. Our children. The balance needs to be right ....a high enough dose to be effective , but not so high as to then cause ill effects.

So come on you pioneering scientists, jump on board and look at what you can do for our children and young adults!!!!

The feedback from those there was wonderful and thanks to all those members who attended, also to Edel who took us under her wing and made sure we were well cared for for the rest of the evening.

Finally we went back to Parliament on the wednesday and had our own tour of the building, thanks Ted. It really is an amazing place and I was impressed that all those we met had time to listen as to why we were there and offer their support. 

And Glennis, we hope we meet with you again and thank you for listening, your team both in Brussels and UK are wonderful and it was lovely to see you "in the office"  I think I am safe in saying you have Sam's vote!!