The social networking site Mumsnet is running a lively debate about how breast feeding rates could be increased. It was triggered by two recent BMJ research articles. You can follow the debate at this link. Meanwhile, 23 signatories have writen a letter to The Times critising the UK Government’s failure to provide women with enough information […]
Tag: Cancer
James Raftery: End of life drugs – what premium? Pt 2
Having recommended NHS use of sunitinib for renal cancer, the appraisal committee of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued separate draft guidance for consultation, recommending against the use of bevacizumab, sorafenib, and temsirolimus, which – along with sunitinib – had been rejected for renal cancer in 2008. […]
James Raftery: End of life drugs—what premium? Pt 1
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the UK drugs watchdog, is currently appraising the use of four drugs—bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib, and temsirolimus—for the treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell cancer. NICE has decided to split this appraisal in two, in order to get guidance out to the NHS as quickly as […]
Anna Donald
Anna died on the morning of 1 February, Sydney time. She was surrounded by her family and by the prayers and thoughts of her friends around the world. Anna took great comfort and encouragement from the comments made on this site, and her blog was one of her great delights over the last few months. […]
Anna Donald on the joy of carers and nasogastric tubes
I’m lying in bed at 4 in the afternoon drinking Yakult. The little pot of yoghurty bacteria, recommended by a friend. I have no idea if it will help my grumbly tummy/abdomen, so, like so many things, I’ll give it a go and see. I still have mucositis from my mouth right through my gut, […]
Anna Donald blogging again
It’s been a bit of a rough five weeks, as readers might have guessed from the protracted absence of blogs. Apparently I was “overdosed” on chemotherapy and ended up in hospital for 4.2 weeks. Which is four weeks too long. Though to be honest, I was so out of it during the first two I […]
Richard Smith on why diabetes envies cancer
Those who campaign on diabetes envy those who campaign on cancer because cancer gets so much more attention than diabetes. Indeed, the diabetes campaigners are very frustrated that diabetes is so consistently neglected. Around 250 million people globally have diabetes, and because of the pandemic sweeping the world that number will increase to 380 million […]
Ice cold in Alice with Anna Donald
I have just returned from a 40-year “anniversary” with my father, who adopted me, sort of, at two. A long time ago. When Morris Minors still bootled about with wooden interiors; Chuppa Chups had not yet been invented; and the moon was still unmarked by human boots. Martin Luther King, however, was dead. […]
Anna Donald: When I wish I didn’t have cancer
I am lying in bed, propped up with a silly number of pillows. I’ve stolen my husband’s, who is spending the night in Taree, a small country town about four hours away, where he is arguing a case about termite control. I’ve always wondered how he knows so much about such an esoteric range of […]
Tessa Richards: Postoperative posting
Sarah Palin may have raised the profile of female politicians, but I’m lifting my glass to the girls who saw me through surgery last week. I did spot the odd male among the panoply of health professionals who looked after me, but they were thin on the ground. From the consultant surgeon and anaesthetist to […]