We are so happy to announce that we’ve joined forces with Noire Wellness to launch a fibroids campaign today, in the run-up to International Women’s Day on 8^th March.

The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #PressForProgress and, together with Noire Wellness, we are calling for everyone to #PressForProgress to improve the experience of women with fibroids.

We believe that for progress to be made, there needs to be:

• Breakthrough research into fibroids and ethnicity
• Patient insight on the impact of diet and exercise on fibroids
• A commitment to professional excellence when caring for women with fibroids, who have a family history of fibroids or who have symptoms associated with fibroids
• Global and local support networks to ensure that women with fibroids never feel isolated
• Greater awareness of fibroids, its symptoms and impact on women’s lives, particularly the psycho-social impact.

We want all women, particularly women who have been affected by fibroids, to join us in our social media campaign to highlight the change that needs to occur to improve the experience, care, health and wellbeing of women with fibroids.

We’ve created a range of resources you can use to join us in this campaign. These include images for social media, Facebook and Twitter headers, sample social media posts and a media kit. For more information and to download our resources, please visit our campaign page here.

The Power of Partnership Working

We are extremely proud of this collaboration which has brought together two organisations passionate about addressing the issues that women with fibroids face. We believe we are stronger together and can achieve so much more by pooling our resources, expertise and strengths. We hope that this will be the start of many joint health initiatives.

More Information

For more information about this campaign, please visit the campaign page here or send us an email, we’d be very happy to hear from you.

Hello all, this is just a quick post to let you know that our name change is formally and legally complete. We have now changed our name from The Lake Foundation to Lake Health and Wellbeing.

As you know, we moved to the Caribbean from the UK and the move provided an opportunity for us to make some improvements to our organisation which involved the name change and an analysis of our work.

We believe the name change better reflects what we do, and we’ve analysed our work and have categorised what we do as follows: research, public health interventions, consultancy and events. This is similar to our previous categories and we’ve now explained each category and included examples of the type of work we do to make it easier for our supporters to understand what we offer.

We still have the same aim of improving the health and wellbeing of the black community and we’re still pretty much the same organisation except we’re now registered as a business rather than a charitable incorporated organisation. This is because the charitable incorporated organisation structure doesn’t exist in the Caribbean, but we’ll still behave in the same way, so we’ll be an ethical business with a social mission.

We have now changed all our social media handles, you don’t have to do anything as we have retained all our followers, but please remember if you want to send us a message via social media or mention us in posts, to use the new handles, which are:

• Facebook @lakehealthwellbeing
• Twitter @lakehealthwell

Our email addresses will remain the same for now, we’ll alert you when we make any changes.

Thank you so much for all your support and we look forward to continuing this exciting journey of change. Have a great week and if you have any questions, please do leave us a comment below.

On 21st February we were delighted to host another fibroids Twitter chat. Our featured guest was Laterria Patton.

Laterria Patton is a Self Care Activist who writes a food blog that promotes reproductive health to black women. The blog content utilizes natural self-healing food practices to educate black women who are suffering with reproductive health problems about the hormonal process, and how to keep it in balance.

During our chat we had an interesting discussion with Laterria  about the common challenges that contribute to uterine disorders (like fibroids), how these challenges can be overcome and how women can achieve optimal uterine health through self-healing food practices.

If you missed our Twitter chat, have no fear, you can read the highlights below.

Hey, hello, hello, Twitter family, it’s our my pleasure to welcome you to another one of our #fibroids #Twitter chats. #FibroidsChat (1/4)

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

Today we’ll be chatting to, Self-Care Activist, @selfcareandfood, about some of the factors that lead to uterine (womb) disorders, like #fibroids, how these can be addressed and how women can achieve good womb health through self-healing food practices. #FibroidsChat (2/4)

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

Hello! My name is Laterria Patton.
I’m a Self Care Activist that promotes social change that is centered around the self care practices of black women. One of the ways that I do this work is by writing a food blog that promotes reproductive health to black women. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

.@selfcareandfood Can you tell us a bit more about your blog and why you started it? #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/2 I started this blog because I wanted to create content that breaks down the different ways in which food is impacting our hormones and how these hormones are having a negative or positive effect on the health of our reproductive organs.

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/2 I use natural self-healing food practices to teach black women who are suffering with reproductive health issues about their hormonal processes and how to keep them in balance.

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

. @selfcareandfood What has been the most interesting and the most surprising things that you’ve learnt since delving into this area? #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

The most surprising thing that I learned since delving in this area is that many obstacles are strategically being put into place that make it hard for black women to get access to the information & food that could help them with their reproductive health issues. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

That is quite surprising, let’s explore that further. What sort of obstacles have been put in place? #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

Some of the obstacles are:
1) Food desserts
2) Bias Physicians
3) Lack of family support

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

We’ll come back to some of these. We should start at the beginning, your work centres on understanding the link between the liver & the uterus. Can you tell us how the health of a woman’s liver affects the health of her uterus, and how this could lead to disorders like fibroids?

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/4 The health of a women’s uterus is affected by the health of her liver because the liver produces the cells that help to create neurons in the brain. These same neurons use cells to send messages from the brain to the uterus.#FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/4 These messages control the rhythm in which the uterine muscles contract & relax so that the uterus knows when to shed the lining(menstrual bleeding) & when not to. An unhealthy liver has a negative effect on the neuron’s ability to communicate messages. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

3/4 When uterus begins to shed it’s menstrual lining at the wrong time or it doesn’t shed as much as it’s suppose to, the excess lining that stays in the uterus contains hormones that never got a chance to leave the body. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

4/4 Too many hormones can cause the uterus to make abnormal cells that contain excessive amounts of estrogen and progesterone. Abnormal cells lead to various disorders within the uterus. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

.@selfcareandfood You write a lot about healing through food. So, let’s explore food a bit, how does the food we eat affect the health of our liver and thus the uterus? #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/2 The liver is a highly dependent upon nutrients to function properly. There are 4 things that can hinder the absorption of nutrients in the liver:

1) Processed foods
2)Toxins
3) Bioavailability
4) Long-term medication usage

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/2 When the liver is not being nourished with nutrients, it can not make the cells that communicate with the neurons that are controlling the functions of the uterus.#FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

1/3 One way that we can improve our reproductive health is by minimize the amount of grains that we are consuming. Many people who want to eat healthier tend to fill their plates up with grains. Grains are healthy BUT overconsuming grains can be counterproductive because:

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/3
1) Most commercially produced products like bread, still contain the anti-nutrients that prevent us from absorbing the nutrients in grains.
2) Eating large amounts of grains daily can cause the pancreas to produce too much of a hormone called insulin.#FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

3/3 3) Some grains like wheat are processed. When your liver gets too busy breaking down processed foods, it doesn’t have time to metabolize your hormones, which causes excessive amounts of hormones to be thrown your bloodstream. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

Ok, that is interesting, so really we should be eating grains in moderation #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

Absolutely. Small portions are fine. If you eat bread, try making you own at home so that you can ferment the grain so that the anti-nutrients are ineffective. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

What are the best foods for a healthy uterus, @selfcareandfood?
#fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/2 The foods that are the most beneficial to our uterine health are all types of whole foods. Eating a variety of whole foods regularly improves the bioavailbility of the liver because the liver requires some nutrients to be paired in order to improve absorption. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/2 For example, black pepper improves the absorption of turmeric. Plus, the liver has the ability to heal it’s with the help of various nutrients. Healing the liver can improve upon the health of the uterus. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

.Do you have any diet tips or advice you can share for women who already have fibroids? Would the advice be the same? #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/2 I would advise anyone who is already suffering with fibroids to minimize processed foods, drink less caffeine, eliminate alcohol and opt for natural healing remedies instead medication(if possible) for 3 months. #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/2 This gives the liver the time that it needs to create new cells that can repair tissue damage or congestion in the liver. This can help to heal minor uterine issues, minimize symptoms or prevent new uterine issues from reoccurring after a uterine surgery #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

The most common concern that I hear about reproductive health is “Should I try to heal an reproductive ailment naturally or with surgery?” I think it depends on the severity of the problem. You need to see a physician to know exactly how minor/urgent the problem is #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

Yes, we hear that a lot too.. Many women would prefer more natural approaches to addressing their reproductive health issues #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

1/2 #FibroidsChat One of the BEST things that anyone can do outside of eating healthy food to promote their uterine health is to start gardening. Start growing small plants in doors until you feel more confident into growing your own TOXIC-FREE produce.

This is why:

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

2/2
1) Plants will eliminate toxins in your house.
2) There are establishments that are paying for you NOT to have access to foods that keep you from filling up pharmaceutical companies pockets.
3) It will save you $ on produce because organic food is beyond high😂 #FibroidsChat

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

If you’re looking for natural self-healing food practices that will help you balance your hormones in order to promote a healthy reproductive system, check out my blog>> https://t.co/RL0VFVdLyj

To contact me email me at Laterriapatton@gmail.com#FibroidsChat pic.twitter.com/tlxdv4EfWK

— Laterria Patton (@selfcareandfood) February 21, 2018

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for this #fibroidschat we hope you found it useful! We really did #fibroidschat

— Lake Health and Wellbeing (@TheLakeFound) February 21, 2018

We are delighted to announce that we are now a member of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, an organisation that we admired from afar when we were based in the UK.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition is a civil society alliance established to combat non-communicable diseases, their associated risk factors and conditions. In the Caribbean the four main non-communicable diseases are diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory diseases and their four main common risk factors are smoking tobacco, high alcohol consumption, an unhealthy diet and being physically inactive. These are the issues that the HCC are tackling in the region.  Additionally, the Caribbean has the highest mortality rate in the Americas from NCDs in the Americas causing three out of every four deaths, this is cause for concern and the HCC is working tirelessly to address this through prevention, early detection and influencing government policy.

We’re delighted to have become a member of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and look forward to working with the HCC and its member organisations to tackle NCDs in the Caribbean.

For more information on the Health Caribbean Coalition you can visit their website here

The OECS Commission’s HIV/TB Elimination Project has launched a series of animations aimed at raising awareness of TB and HIV in the Caribbean. The short, three-part, series tackles HIV/TB prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and control. One of the key messages of the series is that HIV patients can still lead a full life so early detection is of utmost importance.

This campaign targets the public, with the animations designed to encourage community involvement to facilitate social change. It also aims to bring HIV/TB into public discourse and in so doing address the stigma associated with these conditions and therefore combat the discrimination that those affected by HIV and TB may face.

The animation series is part of the significant body of work being carried out by the OECS Commission to meet the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets by 2020. These targets are to diagnose 90% of HIV-positive persons, provide antiretroviral therapy to 90% of people diagnosed and to achieve viral suppression in 90% of those treated.

The OECS HIV/TB Elimination Project

The OECS Commission’s HIV/TB Elimination Project is a multi-country project involving six OECS member states and began on 1^st April 2016 and runs until 31^st March 2019. As well as working towards the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets this project has the aim of ensuring that services for HIV, TB and STIs are sustained, strengthened, available and accessed by key affected populations in the OECS. To achieve their aims and objectives the HIV/TB Elimination Project will focus on five strategic areas:

1. To implement targeted evidence–based combination prevention strategies for key populations
2. To implement the TB elimination framework for low incidence countries to accelerate the elimination of TB in the OECS
3. To increase access to quality laboratory testing, screening and diagnosis for the clinical management of HIV and TB
4. To integrate TB control programs with HIV services to ensure that comprehensive, high quality care is provided for individuals co-infected with HIV and TB
5. To improve HIV/STI /TB surveillance system to increase the availability of data to support evidence-based planning, measure the impact of the response and the achievement of targets

The six member states involved in this project are Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines, each of these countries have their own national HIV programme which are aligned with this project.

View the Animation Series

You can view the videos from the animated series below:

Episode 1: HIV/TB Screening

Episode 2: HIV/TB Prevention

Episode 3: HIV/TB Control

More Information

For more information on this animation series you can visit the OECS’s website here  and for more information on their HIV/TB Elimination Project please click here

 

On 9^th February the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA ) released a set of temporary safety recommendations, for healthcare professionals, on the fibroids drug ESMYA. This action was taken by the MHRA following reports of serious liver injury in four women taking ESMYA.

The MHRA have made the following recommendations:

• Do not initiate new treatment courses of EMYA, including in women who have completed one or more treatment courses previously.
• Perform liver function tests at least once a month in all women currently taking ESMYA. Stop ESMYA treatment in any woman who develops transaminase levels more than 2 times the upper limit of normal, closely monitor and refer for specialist hepatology evaluation as clinically indicated. Liver function tests should be repeated in all women 2 to 4 weeks after stopping treatment.
• Check transaminase levels immediately in current or recent users of ESMYA who present with signs or symptoms suggestive of liver injury (such as nausea, vomiting, malaise, right hypochondrial pain, anorexia, asthenia, jaundice). If transaminase levels are more than 2 times the upper limit of normal, stop treatment, closely monitor and refer for specialist hepatology evaluation as clinically indicated.
• Advise women using ESMYA on the signs and symptoms of liver injury.

They noted that there have been no reports of liver injury with ellaOne, a emergency contraceptive pill, which contains ESMYA. Therefore, there are no safety alerts for this medicine.

Currently the European Medicines Agency (EMA)  are currently conducting a review of EMSYA and will provide an update in the near future.

What is ESMYA?

ESMYA is a prescription drug that was first authorised in the EU for use in patients with fibroids in 2012. It is used to treat moderate to severe symptoms of fibroids and works by stopping the hormone progesterone from stimulating the growth of fibroids and this reduces their size.  It was initially licensed to be used before surgery to shrink fibroids but can now also be used as a stand-alone treatment. It should only be used for up to three months at a time.  The use of ESMYA can be repeated but there should be breaks between each 3-month course of treatment.

The most common side effects of ESMYA are the absence of a woman’s period and thickening of the lining of the womb. You can speak to your doctor about what all the side effects are and these will be listed in the drug leaflet which comes with ESMYA.

ESMYA must not be used by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have vaginal bleeding or have womb, cervical, ovarian or breast cancer. You can speak to your doctor about other restrictions or these will be listed on the drug information leaflet.

For Information

For more information you can download the EMA’s information sheet for healthcare professionals and the MHRA’s full letter issued to healthcare professionals below.

 

Welcome back to our gardening and health blog series where we’ve been taking you on a personal journey as we explore the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening for ourselves.

Today, Abi Begho is back and this time she’s sharing her experience of growing tomatoes. She discusses the ups and downs, the need for patience and the joy of harvesting your first fruits.

We absolutely love tomatoes in my house. We eat them almost every day – in salads, we make Nigerian stew with them, we use them in omelettes, stir fries, sandwiches and much more. You name the dish and we’ll put a tomato in it!

When it came to deciding what to grow in our vegetable garden, tomatoes were first on our list and the first thing we tried.

When I started looking into tomatoes, I must be honest, I soon realised I really didn’t know a thing about them even though I eat them every day.

I was shocked at the variety of tomatoes out there, I was just aware of cherry, plum and what I call “normal” tomatoes, but this is just the tip of the ice berg. I was shocked to learn that there are over 700 varieties of tomatoes, they come in quite a few colours, not just red – yellow, orange, pink,  purple and black, and they have some very interesting names  – Beefsteak, Big Boy, Pink Brandywine, Pink Girl, Lemon Boy, Golden Jubliee and  Better Boy.

Deciding what variety to grow

When it came to deciding which tomato variety to grow, because there were so many to choose from, I decided the best thing to do would be to extract the seeds from a local variety that we buy in our super market all the time. This means that I have no idea what variety it is (as it’s not listed on the package), but I knew it tasted nice and as it’s grown locally then that suggested to me that it would grow well in our garden (I hoped!).

Although this is how I selected which tomato variety to grow, the advice from experts is to base your decision on more scientific factors – how disease resistant a variety is, how it grows (is it determinate or indeterminate) and the time it takes to mature.

From Seed to Fruit

Once I had decided on what tomatoes to grow, then it was planting time.

In my last blog I explained that I simply sliced up a tomato making sure each of the slices had seeds in them, buried the slices in soil and watered them and in less than a week my seeds had germinated and I had about ten seedlings growing happily in my container. I was so excited and just couldn’t wait to see the seedlings develop.

I kept an eye on the seedlings and watered them regularly and one week later their true leaves (second set of leaves) had developed, a sign that the seedlings were developing well. At this point I pretty much left them alone, under a tree that got a lot of sunlight (but protected them from the intense afternoon sun here in St Kitts) and watered them regularly.

When they had outgrown the container, I put some of the young tomato plants in a large pot and the others I planted into my newly created vegetable bed. Then came the test of patience.  One thing gardening teaches you is patience.  Every morning I would go out into the garden and will them to grow, I was so excited every time I saw them develop just a little bit more, it was fascinating.

Two months after planting my tomato seeds I noticed flower buds developing (the very first sign that tomatoes are coming soon) and a few days after that a lovely yellow tomato flower had developed. I thought: ‘yes!  I’ll have tomatoes in a couple of weeks.’ What did I say about patience?  There was more waiting. It took another 6 weeks to get my first ripe tomato and as I type I have 51 green tomatoes growing nicely and waiting to ripen ( ah-mazing!)

Check out the video below to see me picking my second ripe tomato.

Another important thing to mention is that I had to create a support system for my tomato plants. Due to the weight of tomatoes most plants need some form of support to prevent the fruit from weighing them down. There are many options out there and I chose to create a tomato trellis (see picture on the right), I created this using stakes and string. As the plants grew I would tie the main stem loosely to the trellis and weave the leaves horizontally along the string. This, so far (it is still early days), has given the plants some support and training them to grow along the trellis, as well as pruning the plants, has kept them neat and contained.

Challenges

The four main challenges I have encountered thus far are:

Insects – Living in the Caribbean means there are a lot of bugs and insects to contend with and they all seem to love tomatoes as much as I do!  To date, they haven’t caused any major problems, but I did lose two tomatoes to caterpillars who ate them for lunch one day.  I was so sad, it felt like all my hard work had gone to waste, at least it was only two tomatoes . I’ve been keeping an eye out for tomato-eating insects and have flicked a few caterpillars off the plants before they made a meal of the tomatoes.

Blossom End Rot – I woke up one morning shocked to see two of my tomatoes with dark patches on their bottoms, like they were rotting. I promptly discarded them hoping that they wouldn’t affect the tomatoes next to them.  Then, a few days later, the same thing happened to two more tomatoes on the same plant but in a different location. I was dejected, first insects now some horrible looking disease. After a Google search I learnt that is was blossom end rot and not as bad as it looked.

Blossom end rot occurs due to a calcium deficiency where the plant, for various reasons, is unable to absorb enough calcium for its development. The advice from Gardening Know How is not to worry, it usually clears up on its own, just pick off the affected tomatoes and discard them and make sure the plants get adequate water (not too much though). So, for the moment I am going to just wait it out and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

Blossom drop – Last week I noticed that my new tomato flowers weren’t looking healthy at all. They seem drier than the previous set which really thrived and developed into 51 healthy tomatoes. These new tomato flowers are shrivelling up and some have already fallen off the plant without developing into fruit (Nooooo!). I couldn’t believe it. I had so many new flowers which I had hoped would form tomatoes, but alas, it was not meant to be. I hope the next set do better.

After doing some research, I found that blossom drop is common and looking at all the possible causes I have narrowed it down to two which I think could be the culprit:

• Lack of water – we’ve had some short sharp showers and so I haven’t been watering the plants as regularly as I used to. Reflecting on this I don’t think the showers were providing enough water for my plants as the soil has been pretty dry so I am going to start watering every other day as before
• Too many blossoms and fruit  – up until now my plants have been developing really well and I do currently have 51 tomatoes spread across 9 plants and a lot of flowers developing (and dying!). According to The Spruce having all these fruit and flowers developing at the same time requires a lot of energy and they will all be competing for a limited amount of energy and food, and only the strong will survive. They state that once the majority of tomatoes have been harvested the problem will resolve, so again, I just have to wait it out.

Playing the waiting game – In this blog, I have mentioned patience and waiting several times and that has been one of my biggest challenges: waiting for something significant to happen. In the whole scheme of things it hasn’t been that long (3 months) to get my first ripe tomato, but at times it has felt like a life-time. Each step does take a while – it took two months from seed to the first sign of a blossom, then from flower to pea-sized tomato took a week, that got me excited, but then it took over a month for that pea-sized tomato to develop into a fully ripened red tomato, but it was so worth the wait – it was delicious!

Why grow tomatoes?

Tomatoes are a great fruit to grow because they are packed with nutrients. They are known for their fairly high lycopene content which has been linked to a reduction in our risk of developing heart disease and cancer. Tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C, folate, vitamin K and fibre, and they contain iron, potassium, vitamin A and vitamin E.

All these nutrients and minerals are excellent for your overall health and by growing tomatoes in your garden you’ll get an ample supply so you’ll get a good dose of nutrients.

Happy gardening!

Well….that was a fairly long blog post (sorry!), but I hope that it gave you an idea of what it’s like to grow tomatoes and some of the challenges you may encounter along the way. Despite the challenges, it has been a lot of fun and very rewarding. I am looking forwarding to harvesting more tomatoes, so far I have only harvested two so there are many more to come. I’ll keep you all updated.

In my next blog I will move on to my okras – the stars of the show!

See you next time and happy gardening!

Some references and more information

1. Identifying Tomatoes with Blossom End Rot
2. How to prevent blossom end rot
3. What kind of tomatoes should I grow
4. Controlling Blossom Drop 

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If you missed our previous blogs you can read them using the links below

1. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: An Introduction
2. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: How I Got Started

Yesterday, we were delighted to attend the St Kitts World Cancer Day Luncheon. This was an event organised as a celebration of hope to honour the lives of cancer survivors in St Kitts and Nevis. The event was organised by the Health Promotion Unit at the Ministry of Health with support from Lake Health and Wellbeing and the Department of Youth Empowerment.

The event featured talks from high-profile guests including the Minister of State with responsibility for Health, Social and Community Services and Gender Affairs, Minister Wendy Phipps and Chief Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws.

We also heard from cancer survivors who shared their experience very powerfully through poetry and testimonies. Carla Astaphan recited her poem Left Breastie which she wrote shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and Agness Farell spoke of her experience of being diagnosed in 1998, she recounted her ups and downs and the formation of her support group Reach for Recovery.

In addition to these presentations, the Coordinator of Community Nursing Services, Nurse Eulynis Brown gave a very informative overview of cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine which will soon be introduced in St Kitts and encouraged attendees to support the Ministry in its roll-out as it’s a very effective method of preventing cervical cancer.

The highlight of the event was the presentation made to the longest living, oldest and youngest cancer survivors. It was moving to see the longest living cancer survivor being recognised, she was diagnosed 21 years ago and faced both breast and lung cancer. Despite all her challenges, now at the age of 82, she is so positive, happy and full of life; a true hero and inspiration to us all.

This was a positive and uplifting event which demonstrated the strength of the human spirit and we were honoured to have attended and been asked to deliver the vote of thanks.

Today is World Cancer Day, a day that gives the entire world the opportunity to come together to show solidarity on an issue that pretty much touches everybody – whether that be directly or indirectly through a family member, friend or colleague who has been diagnosed. The day aims to be a positive day with the focus being on empowerment, celebrating the lives of those who have been diagnosed and highlighting that everyone has a part to play in fighting cancer.

The theme for today is “We can. I can.” and is part of a three-year campaign exploring how everyone can contribute to reducing the global burden of cancer.  Organisers of World Cancer Day, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), have developed a set of key messages that show exactly how everyone, as a collective or as  an individual, can play a role in reducing the impact of cancer. These messages are:

We Can:

• Inspire action, take action
• Prevent cancer
• Create healthy schools
• Create healthy workplaces
• Create healthy cities
• Support others to return to work
• Challenge perceptions
• Improve access to cancer care
• Shape policy
• Build a quality workforce
• Make the case for investing in cancer control
• Join forces to make a difference

I Can:

• Make healthy choices
• Understand that early detection saves lives
• Ask for support
• Return to work
• Take control of my cancer journey
• Love and be loved
• Make my voice heard

The aim of these messages is to reduce the millions of preventable cancer deaths that sadly take place throughout the world each year by giving everyone clear information and pushing governments to make cancer a priority.

World Cancer Day in St Kitts.

As you may know, we are now based in St Kitts, and for World Cancer Day we are delighted to have partnered with the Health Promotion Team at the Ministry of Health to take the key messages of World Cancer Day out in the community.

We started with a social media campaign using the wonderful resources developed by the UICC and of course the #WeCanICan theme but added #SKNCan (i.e. St Kitts and Nevis Can) to raise awareness of what residents of St Kitts and Nevis can do to reduce their cancer risk.

As part of our social media activity we took the messages (physically, on selfie cards!) to the streets of Basseterre and asked members of the public, businesses and government departments what messages resonated with them and did they feel they might consider taking forward to do their part in beating cancer. We then took pictures of people holding the selfie cards with the message that best represented what people thought would be most effective and these were used to raise awareness last week, in the run-up to World Cancer Day.

This was a great way to raise awareness in the community, it was fun and a bit light-hearted, but still got important messages across to the public whilst creating some teachable moments as people asked questions about what they could do specifically to prevent cancer.

We’re also in the process of organising a cancer awareness lunch to be held on 11^th February where we’ll be celebrating survivors, providing information on what the public can do to reduce their risk of developing cancer and promoting early detection through awareness of signs and symptoms and seeking help promptly.

You Can Get Involved

There is still time to get involved in this campaign.

You can visit the World Cancer Day’s website, download a selfie card, take a picture and post it on social media to show what you can do to help in the fight against cancer. Don’t forget to include the hashtags #WorldCancerDay, #WCD2018 and #WeCanICan. If you’re in St Kitts and Nevis, then go ahead and add #SKNCan.

For all the St Kitts residents out there, you can attend our cancer awareness lunch next Sunday. Stay tuned to our events page for all the details!

We’re so delighted to announce that our first Fibroids Twitter Chat of the year is with Laterria Patton on 21st February  at 5pm, AST (that’s 1pm PST, 4pm EST and 9pm GMT)

Laterria Patton is a Self Care Activist who writes a food blog that promotes reproductive health to black women. The blog content utilizes natural self-healing food practices to educate black women who are suffering with reproductive health problems about the hormonal process and how to keep it in balance.

She is passionate about eliminating the obstacles that contribute to the epidemic of reproductive health disorders amongst black women such as an absence of nutrition-based literature that specifically caters to their cultural needs and preferences, not having access to fresh toxic-free fruits and vegetables,  doctors who discourage  natural healing practices and a lack of understanding and support from their family unit.

Laterria is on a mission to create a world where there is a tremendous improvement in the outcomes and costs associated with breast, ovarian, uterine and vaginal ailments amongst black women because she believes that healthy eating, hormonal balance and reproductive health should be a positive, simple and stress-free experience for all women.

Join us for a chat with Laterria Patton about the common challenges that contribute to uterine disorders (like fibroids), how these challenges can be overcome and how women can achieve optimal uterine health through self-healing food practices.

We’ll be putting questions to Laterria and you can put your questions to her too. So if you have a burning question about uterine health or just want to get involved in the discussion then do join us on the day. To take part in the conversation please use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.

For more information on Laterria, please visit her blog  www.medium.com/@laterriapatton or follow her on social media

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/selfcareandfood

Facebook: www.fb.me/selfcareandfood

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/laterriapatton/