Saturday, 26 June 2010

Speaker: Neil Young, Pharmacist for Co-Operative Chemist, Question and Answer session

The meeting was very informative and received positive feedback from those who attended as it was an informal discussion and enabled members to have a frank and open discussion about their experiences and conditions. It also enabled people to ask questions of the Pharmacist, Neil Young from the Co-operative Pharmacies, who provided a clear, personable and understandable explanation to those who had medical questions, which was very useful and a rare opportunity for many of those who attended.

A discussion took place in the group about their experiences with doctors and consultants and what they wanted from their doctors and consultants, in the hope that this information could be fed back by the BTF at the Symposium on Diabetes and Endocrinology in October.

There was then a question and answer session which members found very informative about the following issues:-

• The drugs that interact and affect the absorption of levothyroxine.
• Why manufacturers' packaging of levothyroxine for all the different levels i.e.: 100 mcg, 50 mcg, 25 mcg, cannot be the same colour size and writing so as not to confuse the patients.
• Whether there was any difference between the manufacturers of levothyroxine as some members felt different on different brands and whether the doctor could prescribe the make of the brand on the prescription.

Saturday, 20 March 2010

The first meeting of the Durham support group met at Durham County Hall. It was very well attended and received excellent feedback from members. Dr. C.S. Arun MD FRCP, consultant in diabetes and endocrinology from Darlington Memorial Hospital presented an informative lecture on thyroid disease and answered questions from the audience. Donna Reed, BTF volunteer representative, shared information about the British Thyroid Foundation and it's mission. "A big thank you to Janis Hickey, BTF Director, and my mum for supporting me. I think we were all better informed about our conditions after the meeting." (Jennifer, Local Group Coordinator)