Finally an Epidemiological Study into the prevalence of Cancers in Gibraltar is announced

I am delighted to hear that the Government of Gibraltar has at long last announced an Epidemiological Study for Gibraltar!

In a press statement yesterday, the Government said "following the conclusion of the international selection process, it has now commissioned an independent scientific study into the prevalence of Cancers in Gibraltar".

Epidemiological Study in Gibraltar

The Government has now awarded a contract, for the study to be conducted, to a team from the National Environmental Research Institute at Aarhus University in Denmark, to begin an Epidemiological Study in Gibraltar.

After an extensive and detailed consultation, selection and tendering process, in which specialists from the Government’s Technical, Environmental and Health departments took part, the tender to carry out the epidemiological study has been awarded to the National Environmental Research Institute, at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

The Epidemiological Study will investigate the historical and contemporary patterns of cancer in Gibraltar and surrounding areas. It will aim to establish whether or not there is a higher incidence of cancer in Gibraltar and if so, whether Gibraltar is a high-risk community for particular types of cancer and will be scientifically exploring their causes, taking full account of geographical and health hazard exposure to pollutants and contaminants. The study will culminate with the production of a detailed report on the findings, accompanied by appropriate scientific comments.

The National Environmental Research Institute at the University of Aarhus is a renowned institution in this field. It has a track record of reporting at international level to the UN and to the EU. The scientists themselves are of international repute having acted as advisors and project managers for the EU and World Health Organization on several projects involving the study of diseases and their distributions.

The study will commence within a month and is expected to be completed by early next year.

Long Campaign for Study to be Implemented

This news is very welcome to me as I'm sure it is for many others in Gibraltar. I have long campaigned about the urgent requirement of such a study and have actively supported Gibraltar ecologists the Environmental Safety Group (ESG) in their vigorous campaign.

As far back as 2006, I joined the ESG in a Petition for Epidemiological Studies to be carried out in Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar area and set up an online petition to this effect, signatures of which were included in the ESG's offline petition and handed in to Government in May 2007.

In a statement issued this afternoon, the ESG have also welcomed the announcement by Gibraltar's Minister for the Environment, Ernest Britto yesterday.

The ESG has campaigned for several years now for an independent and transparent study to be carried out on populations around the Bay of Gibraltar. The image at the top of this post is from a poster that was produced by them to advertise a demonstration in November 2006, calling on all Governments in the area to implement a Epidemiological Study as a matter of urgency.

In their statement today, ESG spokesperson Janet Howitt said the ESG is "delighted that this important programme will now get underway if only at a local level so far".

"There are serious concerns of higher than average rates of cancer not only in our community but within towns around the Bay so rigorous and expert assessment of these issues as advocated also by public health specialist Professor Joan Benach, is clearly both overdue and necessary.

It is further hoped that such independent studies will also be conducted in the Spanish towns as soon as possible."

The ESG concluded by confirming their commitment to "assist those undertaking the studies as best it can".

PDP Welcome Study Announcement

Gibraltar's Progressive Democratic Party also welcomed the announcement. The PDP’s environment spokesman Dr Gavin Gafan said "this is a step forward in the analysis of how bay activities might impact on our health".

"The results of this might be pivotal in understanding the risks faced by Gibraltar’s population as a result of polluting entities around the bay.

It is also a good platform for analysing other health concerns that can be attributed to pollution in and around the bay of Gibraltar."

Dr Gafan added that the fact that the epidemiological study will be commissioned as an independent study "gives further merit to the results".

"What is also important is that the Government publish the results of the study as soon as it is received so that there can be a full and informed debate about its findings."

A Personal Note

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may at some stage have seen from my profile that I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) some years ago, shortly after returning to the UK having lived in Gibraltar and the surrounding area for around six years in the late 90's and early 2000's.

While it will always be impossible to say how and why I acquired this cancer that affects the blood and particularly the immune system, my strong suspicion is that I somehow acquired it during my stay in the Gibraltar area.

I personally know many people and I am also aware of others, through friends and family, who have also been diagnosed with CLL and other similar forms of cancers, both in Gibraltar and across the border in the surrounding communities of the Bay and Campo de Gibraltar area.

So, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, that there is a much higher than normal prevalence of cancers in Gibraltar and the surrounding communities of the Bay of Gibraltar area, as Professor Joan Benach identified in his authoritative study of the area, The Atlas of Mortality.

Let's hope the study will be conducted in depth and that it will pave the way for whatever issues are causing these much higher incidences of cancers that clearly affect the area, are addressed. This is a matter of great urgency as people are dieing from these cancers... to an extent far and way over and above what is normally expected!

I am sorry, that the Mancomunidad de Municipios, the Community of Municipalities of the Campo de Gibraltar (all Spanish) have not joined in participating in this study as was muted some time back. These other communities in Spain also desperately need an Epidemiological Study to be carried out and I very much hope for their sake, that their Government pulls their finger out... very soon!

Hats Off to the ESG

Finally, I would like to congratulate Janet Howitt and ALL at the ESG for their dogged campaign over many years, in pursuit of this objective. They have been formidable and relentless and I thank them for their great efforts on our behalves! Well done ESG... I hope you crack open a bottle or two of a nice bubbly... and thoroughly congratulate yourselves!!

If I was able to... I would come round personally and provide said bottle!

A little "hand of hope"... an amazing story or a hoax?

I am grateful to Sancho, blogging at Tilting at Windmills, who posted this amazing story following a moving email a reader of his blog sent him.

The email, with the subject line "Hand of Hope" read as follows:

Please read before viewing picture - it's worth it!

A picture began circulating in November. It should be ‘The Picture of the Year,’ or perhaps, ‘Picture of the Decade.’ It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with Spina Bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville , he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week- old foetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said: ‘The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.’ Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture - and how awesome and completely incredible it is.... pass it on. The world needs to see this one!

This is the picture:



An amazing story or a hoax?

Some readers of 'Tilting at Windmills' took exception when one of them, showing prudence, checked this story out.

Frankly, when I first read it, my instinct was to do the same. Call me a cynic if you like. The fact is, there are far too many hoax emails constantly going around and arriving in my inbox on a regular basis. All you have to do is check out places like Urban Legends or Hoax-Slayer to verify what I am saying is the reality... and that hoaxing emails abound!

This one however, is true... but it has to be said, the email does exagerate a touch!

According to About.com's Urban Legends' Analysis, the amazing photo (above) was taken by Michael Clancy and originally published in USA Today and The Tennessean on September 7, 1999, is authentic. It began circulating via email within weeks of its first appearance in newspapers.

The accompanying text is basically accurate, as well. The photo was taken during a surgery performed by Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville on August 19, 1999 to treat a 21-week-old foetus for spina bifida. The operation was a success, and three months later a healthy Samuel Alexander Armas was delivered by C-section.

Doubts have been raised about the assertion that the foetus actually reached out of the opening in the womb to grasp the surgeon's finger, inasmuch as there are at least three different accounts of precisely what happened at that moment, two of them from eyewitnesses:

This amazing photo, taken by Michael Clancy and originally published in USA Today and The Tennessean on September 7, 1999, is authentic. It began circulating via email within weeks of its first appearance in newspapers.

The accompanying text is basically accurate, as well. The photo was taken during a surgery performed by Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville on August 19, 1999 to treat a 21-week-old foetus for spina bifida. The operation was a success, and three months later a healthy Samuel Alexander Armas was delivered by C-section.

Doubts have been raised about the assertion that the foetus actually reached out of the opening in the womb to grasp the surgeon's finger, inasmuch as there are at least three different accounts of precisely what happened at that moment, two of them from eyewitnesses:

• Email text (above): "During the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed, hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger."



• Photographer Michael Clancy: "Samuel came out from under anesthesia too soon and thrust his clenched fist out of the surgical opening to his mother's womb. In my opinion, Samuel was in pain. Dr. Joseph Bruner reached over and gently lifted Samuel's hand, and Samuel reacted by squeezing the doctor's finger."



• Surgeon Joseph Bruner: "Depending on your political point of view, this is either Samuel Armas reaching out of the uterus and touching the finger of a fellow human, or it's me pulling his hand out of the uterus ... which is what I did."

Urban Legends analysis summarises:

"Perhaps it all boils down to semantics. Dr. Bruner has stated elsewhere that Samuel's hand "appeared" in the uterine opening before he reached out and lifted it, lending credence to photographer Clancy's version of events. In any case, although it appears the email does exaggerate when it says the foetus "reached ... through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger," something akin to that really did happen.

Such quibbles don't lessen the impact of the photograph itself, which Dr. Bruner has described as "powerful" and Michael Clancy calls "miraculous." It should come as no surprise that both the image and Samuel Armas' success story have figured prominently in the abortion debate ever since."

So... there you have it... this amazing story is true... and it did happen. I hope you were as moved by it as I was!

Update on Samuel Armas

Here's an update on little Samuel, written by Charles W. Colson on BreakPoint Commentary in January 2000.

Samuel, the baby in the photograph, was born healthy and active five weeks after his operation.

Today, instead of looking forward to life as a paraplegic, he enjoys the prospect of running and playing like other kids.

You can read more here.

The last available update on young Samuel was posted on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, around 2003... and at that time, he was coming along: Samuel Armas.

I wonder how he is today? He should be nine years old now? I do hope he's growing up healthily and well!

In my Inbox today... embarrassment in the doctor's reception area

You know how Doctor's Surgery receptionists always ask why you are there... and force you to answer in front of a room full of other patients, what's wrong and you know how sometimes... it can be embarrassing?

I know most of us have experienced this. I just love the way this old guy handled it.

***************

An 86 year old man walked into a crowded Doctor's surgery waiting room and approached the desk....

The Receptionist said, 'Yes sir, what are you seeing the Doctor for today?"

"There's something wrong with my dick", he replied.

The receptionist... a little flustered and irritated, said, "You shouldn't come into a crowded waiting room and say things like that!"

"Why not? You asked me what was wrong and I told you," he said.

The Receptionist replied; "Now you've caused everyone, in this room full of people, some embarrassment.

You should have said there is something wrong with your ear or something like that and discussed the problem further with the Doctor in private".

The man replied, "You shouldn't ask people questions, in a room full of strangers, if the answer could embarrass anyone".

The man walked out... waited several minutes... then re-entered the doctor's reception.

The Receptionist smiled smugly and asked;

"Yes?"

"There's something wrong with my ear", the old man said.

The Receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice.

"And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?"

"I can't piss out of it"!

The waiting room erupted in laughter!

Mess with seniors... and you're going to lose!

Bishop Caruana signs Dr Giraldi Home Inquiry Petition

The clamour for a public inquiry into the allegations surrounding the Dr Giraldi Home for the disabled in Gibraltar is attracting support from high places!

The Gibraltar Local Disability Movement (GLDM) are reporting today that Bishop Charles Caruana, the leader of Gibraltar's Roman Catholic diocese, apparently signed their petition on Saturday.

The petition calls for a public inquiry into the Government's Social Services Agency's handling of serious allegations made during the past three years, which were highlighted last month on Spanish TV's Antena 3 programme 'Espejo Publico'. The programme featured Gibraltar's home for the disabled, the Dr Giraldi Home, referring to it as 'Gibraltar's House Of Horrors'!

The screening of the programme has caused much embarrassment to the Government and hs instigated a public row and slanging match between the Government, the Opposition parties and Gibraltar's Disability groups.

In a statement today, the Gibraltar Local Disability Movement report that Bishop Caruana signed the petition while he was attending the Royal Marines parade, who marched through the streets of Gibraltar on Saturday morning, exercising their 'Freedom of the City of Gibraltar'.

Apparently, during the parade in Main Street, Bishop Caruana approached the Disability Movement's table at the Piazza and after engaging with them in conversation, signed the petition for the public inquiry.

During his conversation, Bishop Caruana asked the question that is on everyone's mind, "why have they taken so long", and added what many of us have been saying for a long time now... "the sooner they do it the better"!

Bishop Caruana’s strong voice and support is very welcome, especially to the GLDM.

Gordon Nelson, spokesperson for the Disability Movement said:

"Bishop Caruana’s support for our petition calling for a public inquiry into the allegations of Dr Giraldi Home has not only strengthened our call but has also given us the strength and inspiration to see it through to the end.

The Gibraltar Local Disability Movement is working with very limited resources to conduct this sampling of public support for our petition for a public inquiry into the allegations of Dr Giraldi Home. We hope to be able to hand the petition over to the Governor, Sir Robert Fulton, very soon."

Mr Nelson added that the Governor is a representative for the Queen and the UK. He pointed out that the UK is responsible for Gibraltar’s compliance with the various charters respecting the rights of the disabled internationally. He said the GLDM is urging for "appropriate measures be made to enlist the support of the UK government, for a full and public inquiry into the allegations of Dr Giraldi Home, thereby remedying our violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities".

Gordon Nelson, in the GLDM statement, concludes:

"The inquiry should also ensure that systemic failures are addressed by providing for regular such independent audits to prevent a recurrence of this sorry affair.

The Gibraltar Constitution does not diminish the UK's international responsibility for Gibraltar and as the member state responsible in the European Union the UK has a duty to ensure that Gibraltar complies."

Quite right Gordon... go for it... Oh and Well Done the Bish... he is a good egg!!

I take my hat off to... John Suchet

Today... I take my hat off to John Suchet.

John Suchet was 'the face' of ITN's Early Evening News during the mid 90's. He has reported on momentous events such as the revolution in Iran, and he's won awards as a newsreader. He has anchored or contributed to countless special event programmes, including royal occasions (he was one of the main commentators on ITN's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral), the Budget and ITN's election coverage.

John's younger brother is David Suchet, a famous British actor, best known for his role as Agatha Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot in the long-running British TV dramatic series Poirot.

Earlier this month, John Suchet spoke publicly for the first time, about one of the toughest events in his life. Dementia is slowly robbing him of his wife of more than 20 years, Bonnie.

In a number of appearances and interviews across various news channels, John spoke touchingly of how Bonnie began to develop symptoms of the devastating brain disease in her early 60s, (she is now aged 67). In a very moving interview on BBC News he said:

"I've gone from being a lover to a carer."

His wife was diagnosed with dementia three years ago, after sporadic instances of forgetfulness and confusion.

Doctors think Bonnie Suchet has Alzheimer's disease. Her husband prefers to call it 'the A word'.



Whilst it is distressing to see how John Suchet has been pushed to the brink, in the face of the problems that are challenging him and his beloved wife and in his efforts to deliver the best care for her, I think he is very brave and has done something extremely positive in highlighting this issue... and inspired the debate that has followed, on the issues of Aging, Dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

It is for this reason, for his courage and to support him, that I take my hat off to John Suchet today!

You can read more about John Suchet on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dementia

Like John, many carers need more support. Dementia is not just a natural part of aging; it is a physical condition of the brain that robs people of their lives.

Commenting on John Suchet speaking publicly about his wife's dementia, Neil Hunt the Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Society said:

"Sadly, John and Bonnie are not alone. As the population ages, it is estimated that over a million of us will be diagnosed with dementia in the next ten years. We urgently need to invest more to care for people today and find a cure tomorrow."

More information on these issues can be found here:

BBC - Headroom - Wellbeing guide - Alzheimer's Disease

For Dementia > "Every dementia carer should have an Admiral Nurse"

Carers Direct

I take my hat off to... Jade Goody

Earlier this week, Max Clifford, Jade Goody's publicist, confirmed media reports that doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London had given Jade just months to live.

Last Saturday Mr Clifford said "she was informed yesterday that tragically, she's terminally ill. She was obviously devastated."

Mr Clifford went on to say that Jade had now begun drawing up a will and making plans for the future care of her two sons.

Jade has been keeping busy this week... making plans for her wedding. All things being well, she will marry her long time partner Jack Tweed this coming Sunday! Congratulations to both!

There has been much written throughout Jade Goody's life in the spotlight, as a celebrity.... often critical, now and then vitriolic. At times... some of her antics have made me uncomfortable. But... I really have to take my hat off to her right now.

Her decision to be so public with her illness is very brave and I applaud her desperate efforts to do whatever she can, while she is still alive, to raise as much cash as she can, to ensure the future of her children... in the hope that they may have the education... and better breaks than she ever had in her childhood!

A by product of the publicity Jade is attracting through her actions is to raise the awareness of cervical and other cancers... and not just amongst women. It is also enabling debate over the issue of death generally, which is a big taboo in Britain.

I think all this is very positive and I take my hat off to Jade Goody... a very gritty and ever the savvy exploiter of the media. Good for her and her family. I extend my very best wishes to her and her loved ones!

Anyone on Facebook... might also like to support Jade... by joining the Facebook Group: Jade Goody - Cancer Support


Cervical cancer screening

Cervical cancer screening prevents cervical cancer.

Cervical screening is sometimes known as the 'smear test'. At screening the doctor or nurse takes a sample of cells from your cervix using a spatula or a small brush. They examine these cells under a microscope to look for any unusual changes. Read more...

Help fight Cancer - Donate to Cancer Research UK

Relaxing advice... for stress just in

Just received in my Inbox... good advice for fighting stress!

RELAX!!!

I thought I might share this with all my 'nutty friends'... hope you have a fabulous STRESS FREE Day!

Apparently... everyone can appreciate and relate to 'Patches'.



'Patches' has a thought for today... he asks that you handle every stressful situation like a dog...

Piss on it and walk away!