NEPEAN BLUE MOUNTAINS PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP INC

PRESIDENT’S REPORT TO THE 2023 AGM

Greetings members and wider network.

Notwithstanding another challenging year that we have had I present this report, my tenth as President, for the 2023 AGM.  

My thanks to Emu Sports Club who again allowed us the use of the room that we are in free of charge.  Members are very happy with this location as they can enjoy a bistro meal and a drink before or during the meeting. Emu Sports Club Membership is only $6 per annum and discounts on meals and drinksmore than cover that cost.

Unfortunately, neither my wife Jan or I were unable to attend the 2022 AGM and Christmas luncheon as we both had Covid 19 at that time.

I am told that it was a very enjoyable luncheon, a Committee was elected and Chris Kemp received a Life Membership for her support of our Group over many years. Congratulations Christine.Also at that Christmas Luncheon our annual donations were made to Cancer Wellness Support and to PCFA.  Appreciation Certificates were given to Terry McCallum representing Masonic Care for their donation to our Group and to the Hon Jim Lloyd who had recently retired from PCFA for his personal support of our Group.

In my absence the Board had also decided to award Life Membership at the AGM to Jan and myself for our support of the Group since our joining in 2011. However, due to Covid we were unable to attend and Vice President Graeme presented us with our Life Membership at the March meeting as we travelling over the February meeting. We are very humbled and grateful for this recognition of our support for this Group.

2023 provided us with some highs and lows.

It was very disappointing that our traditional Bunnings sausage sizzle on the Saturday before Father’s Day was cancelled due to a lack of support from the membership.  This was to be our major fund raiser and its cancellation has certainly affected our financial position.

Our only fundraising activity this year was the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic and our involvement in the scrutineering saw us receive a donation of $1,000.  My thanks to our members who volunteered on that day and to HCC for inviting our Group to scrutineer once again.

However, Emu Plains Lions Club has continued its sponsorship of our website and we are very grateful to them for that and PCFA reimbursed the Group for the costs of running the 2023 Awareness Night in Prostate Cancer Awareness Month of September.

Highlights were an amazing selection of speakers who presented during the year.  These included a Functional Urologist who, I am told, held our members spell bound during her presentation, A Yoga expert who presented on Chair Yoga, four Clinicians who presented at our Prostate Cancer Awareness night in September and a local doctor who presented his invention – The Widdleometer – that measures urine flow.

September was our Premier Meeting for the year being an Awareness Evening that featured a Urologist, Radiation Oncologist, Medical Oncologist (and Director of Nepean Cancer Care Centre) and our own member Liz McKervey our local Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurse.. The Meeting was well attended and finger food, tea and coffee, sponsored by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia was enjoyed after the meeting.

Unfortunately, due to the small numbers of members attending the Group meetings it is rather embarrassing to have a great speaker turn up to a small audience.  Consequently, we have had a number ofopen forums and those new persons or visitors attending get optimism from the experiences of other members particularly survivors of many years.

Just a note to new members – if you found our Group meeting gave you some comfort, your story will be of great comfort to newly diagnosed men and their partners who would love to listen to your stories of recent treatment.  Please continue to attend our support group meetings when you can.

Our Group was again represented at Relay for Life and in the PCFA’s Long Run and although support was very minimal from members and network, we managed to raise some money that the Cancer Council and PCFA would not otherwise have had. 

During this year the Group also represented itself or PCFA at the Bathurst 24 Hour Sports Car Race, Shannons Sydney Classic, the Regional Support Groups Conference at Dubbo, Clarendon Classic Machine Truck Toy and Hobby Show Sydney German Autofest (over 600 German cars on display), Penrith Relay for Life and the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic.

Craig Lowndes is the driving force behind PCFA’s participation at Bathurst and he is a wonderful Ambassador for PCFA and his car was painted in PCFA colours

I know that I repeat this each year, but I believe that it is important to understand that although we have a number of new members join each year, and it is important for any group to have new members, our membership grows through reluctant membership as all, or most of the men here, have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. We are the reluctant brotherhood. I trust that all men and their partners visiting us for the first time have found us welcoming and are encouraged by knowing that they are not alone.

My thanks to each of my five colleagues on the Board who have worked selflessly for the betterment of our Support Group.My thanks to them for also for putting their hands up to serve in 2024.  A quorum at our Board Meetings is five and these are held at 4 30pm on our Group meeting night.  If two members are absentthen a Board Meeting cannot be held and this happened on a number of times in 2023 but our Secretary ensured that the requirements of our constitution were met in respect of numbers of meetings held.

I encourage all members to consider nominating for the Board as our Board Meetings are now held, as mentioned before, prior to the Monthly Group Meeting and last less than an hour. New nominations are welcome as new faces bring new ideas.

The Board looks after awareness, publicity, money matters, library, newsletters website, Facebook etc and certainly make our Support Group what it is.  Their enthusiasm and humour for its continuing success together with respectful attitudes at all meetings have made them a pleasure to chair.

This year our website was rewritten by a non member, Penny Sheridan who volunteered in discussion with our Web Manager John Parsonage, to rewrite the website for us.  Our group is most appreciative of Penny’s efforts and thanks her very much. I will call Penny at the end of the meeting to receive a token of our appreciation.

I must also acknowledge my wife Jan who has assisted me tremendously in the background and I thank her for that. I also acknowledge and thank all the Board’s wives for their support of our Group. Without our ladies and those of our member survivors the Group would be a much lesser entity.

 In conclusion, I again look forward to continuing a post virus revitalisation of our Support Group through the continuation of face-to-face meetings over the next 12 months. 

With my best wishes for a Merry Christmas, Happy, Prosperous but most importantly a healthy New Year and a reminder of our motto “YOU ARE NOT ALONE”

 David Wilkinson 

PRESIDENT 

NEPEAN/BLUE MOUNTAINS PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP INC

18 December 2023