RE: TPA AUTUMN DINNER AND MEETING - BIRMINGHAM 2ND OCTOBER.

[Guest guest]

Hello Sheila

Happy New Year! Please could you tell me how to stop the emails from thyroid treatment as there are too many for me to keep up with

many thanks Janet Bamber

TPA AUTUMN DINNER AND MEETING - BIRMINGHAM 2ND OCTOBER.

Hello to all Members,

TPA Dinner and Meeting Saturday 2nd October 2010 and other matters

Well, it seems a good day was had by all. We travelled down to Birmingham from North Yorkshire on Friday in torrential rain and stop/go all the way. We were delayed 2 hours, and so were most of the people who drove to Birmingham on the Motorways.

Saturday turned out to be blue sky and sunshine and this was a good omen. I didn't have time to count everybody but we reckoned about 80 people turned up. We had half an hour to `settle down' and make our self known to some of the others, and Marie and sold raffle tickets for the many prizes donated by some of our members, before starting lunch around 12.30p.m. I am very happy to tell you that with the money from the Raffle and donations, we raised the sum of £540.

The Manager and staff of Chung Ying Gardens Restaurant were lovely and very helpful - the food fantastic and the tables groaned under the strain and weight of the all the different, delicious dishes.

After lunch, we had a 15 minute break so people could buy drinks etc. Speeches started at 2.00p.m. and I had determined not to give a `speech' - just say hello, and introduce the Speakers, but I kept remembering something I needed to mention, and then something else, and then something else, and then…..and so on I went. On this occasion, I was absolutely delighted to tell everybody that at previous meetings and in Newsletters, I had endeavoured to keep everybody updated on our Charity Status. I was extremely happy to tell everybody that I will no longer be giving further updates, because on Friday 1st October 2010, Thyroid Patient Advocacy had, at last, been granted full Registration by the Charities Commission.

The really great news is that our registration had taken so long to reach fruition, because our specific aims and objectives were different to any other Thyroid Charity previously registered, and that although the Charities Commission (CC) had agreed all our Aims and Objectives, TPA did not fit properly into any of their 'specific' boxes on their Registration Forms, and these could not be altered. The CC has worked on the wording of our Aims and Objectives so that we would fit their boxes. The upshot of this is that it has left us with a much wider scope in which to carry out the work we will be doing. It feels good to be `original', yet sad to realise there appears to be no other Charity that has the same specific aims and objectives that we hold, i.e. our campaigning work to get the NHS and all Thyroid Associations to change their diagnostic and treatment protocol for those with the symptoms of hypothyroidism, not only in the UK, but world-wide.

I introduced our Speakers - Dr Peatfield, Dr Mantzourani, Nick Foot, Sheila Banks and Stenning (who read out an update on Dr Skinner's World Thyroid Register). Both Dr P and D M gave us a lot of very interesting information on which to reflect. Nick talked about Reverse T3 and Sheila B about the connection between homeopathy and thyroid and adrenal support. All of these have been recorded and I will send a link to all of you so you can listen to these when the CD has been completed.

We then had a further 15 minute break, after which, the raffle prizes were drawn, because one or two people had to leave early to catch their train. You can see a list of the prizes and the people who generously donated them at the end of this message.

The raffle was followed by a Question & Answer session where the audience asked questions and one of the Speakers attempted to give them an answer. The Q & A session went particularly well this time; as was able give those asking questions a `roving' microphone.

Hopefully, Mike (who sat behind a curtain hidden away on the stage recording everything) will be able to make sense of everything better than those in previous years, because of annoying background noise and people being too far away from a microphone.

Both Dr Peatfield and Dr Mantzourani mentioned the wonderful atmosphere that accompanied the dinner and meeting. The buzz was electric, everybody feeling free to move between tables getting to know the faces to the names, which worked well as we had made name badges for everybody.

The raffle and donations of £541 should bring our funds just over £11.000.00 so we are half-way there to collecting the £20,000 needed to do our European Hypothyroid Patient Survey. Many, many thanks to everybody over the past year who made donations to TPA and also to those who have donated raffle prizes to help raise more money.

Dr Skinner telephoned me from France on Sunday afternoon to ask how the meeting had gone and said again, how disappointed he was to have missed it by getting his dated mixed up. He has promised he will be there at our next Meeting.

I will give more details in the Autumn Newsletter once Mike has completed the recordings and Lee has uploaded the recordings to the web site, but thanks once again to everybody who attended, and to all those who helped in the background.

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DR SKINNER NEEDS A LITTLE HELP FROM YOU:

Do we have any members who are able to give a little spare time to helping Dr Skinner with his little web site www.worldthyroidregister.com. He wishes to add the link to the TPA World Register of Counterexamples to Levothyroxine-only Therapy http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/register_of_counterexamples.php on to his web site, as the two sit well together and also needs this web site updating occasionally. This involves little work, but he really knows little about the creation or updating of web sites. If you are able to help him at all, please will you let me know, and I will pass your name, telephone number and email address on to him. This would not only be helping Dr Skinner, but helping all those suffering with the symptoms of hypothyroidism too.

If you have not signed Dr Skinner's World-wide Thyroid Register, please will you do so, to help yourself and all other sufferers. The present situation must NOT be allowed to continue. www.worldthyroidregister.com.

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HAVE YOU YET COMPLETED THE QUESTIONNAIRE?

I was surprised to find quite a lot of you put your hands up when I asked at the Meeting how many of you had tried levothyroxine-only and still had symptoms, but had then started T3 and your symptoms started to go. I then asked those of you to raise your hands again, if you had not yet completed the three short questions on the World Register of Counterexamples to levothyroxine-only Therapy. Quite a number of hands shot up. WHY?

I really cannot stress enough HOW IMPORTANT THIS REGISTER IS. Unless we get as many people responding to this questionnaire as is humanly possible, all the work we have done thus far will be wasted. We are relying on you to do your bit. THIS IS OUR WAY TO PROVE AT LAST to The Royal College of Physicians and the British Thyroid Association et al and other Thyroid Associations throughout the world, that their recommendation of using levothyroxine-only for those suffering the symptoms of hypothyroidism DOES NOT and CANNOT work for a SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF SUFFERERS. According to Sir Karl Popper, only one counterexample is sufficient to show something does not work - we now have 458 responses showing that T4 alone does not work for them. PLEASE RESPOND NOW http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/register_of_counterexamples.php

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THYROID DEMONSTRATION:

We are now starting to get together a list of people who are happy to help TPA organise a demonstration once we agree on a suitable venue. I have opened a new Forum for such an Organising Committee where discussions and planning can take place out of the gaze of the general public – to keep a surprise element right to the end. If you feel you have something to offer by way of helping in organising such a Demonstration, please write to me privately at sheila[@]tpauk[.]com

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Below is a list of the Raffle Prizes and those who donated them:

Luxury Chocolate Hamper - Marie Holloway

Long Weekend or Mid-Week B & B break in Bridlington, Yorkshire - Jacki Dunkley

£25.00 Marks and Spencer Voucher - Cameron

Bottle of Whisky - Icke

Bottle of Whisky – Ina Whitlam

2 – 2011 Calendars - 3 sets of 4 Place Mats – Kathleen Ranger

Quilted Cushion Cover - Stenning

Original Framed Oil Painting `The Dalesway, Nr. Ilkley, Yorkshire' – Sheila

Bottle of Wine, 2 glasses, wine stopper, corkscrew in case – Sheena and Vince Fisher

Book – `Hypothyroidism in Childhood and Adulthood' - signed by Donna Roach and Coralie Philips

Book - `Your Thyroid and How to Keep it Healthy' - signed by Dr Peatfield

Book – `Diagnosis and Management of Hypothyroidism' – to be signed by Dr Skinner

2 Boxes of Bath Lotion/Cream Products from Neil's Yard - Lester

2 Decorative Acrylic Jam pots with Decorated Lids and Spoon + Jar of Jam - Hodgkinson (Galathea)

[Guest guest]

Hi Janet, and a Happy New Year to you too.

You were inundated with messages from TPA because you used the

option to receive messages via Individual Emails. I have changed you over to

receiving 'Special Notices' only. This means that from now on, when you want to

write a message or read any of the messages, just go to thyroid treatment

and then click on 'Messages' on the Home Page in the Menu. It might take an

hour or two or three for to catch up with this change, but after that,

your Inbox will be quieter.

Hope that is OK.

Luv - Sheila

Hello

Sheila

Happy

New Year! Please could you tell me how to stop the emails from

thyroid treatment as there are too many for me to keep up with

many

thanks Janet Bamber