World Immunology Day Meeting in London

[john]

hi all,
no-one seems to have said anything about saturday's meeting yet, so i thought i would begin.
for me it was an excellent day for getting information, networking and most of all for meeting up with old friends and making new friends.
i am so convinced that our way forward is to simply keep in touch with each other, we are inhabitants of a very small village and it's important that information is gathered and passed on by any means possible. the nicest way to do this is face to face, and this was proved on saturday!
i was cautious before the meeting, as i said in a previous post, but in the event the love and support and delight in discovering who was there was brilliant.
well done to everyone involved in the organisation of the meeting, huge gratitude to the medics who gave the presentations, thank you so much to the sponsors for making it such a hospitable day, and thanks a million to all the attendees for just being there!!
take care - john

[syd]

Wow, sounds like I missed out. If I had known, I might have booked a flight home for the weekend! Was it UKPIPS who organised the event?

[john]

hi syd,
it was organised by the royal free hospital, GOSH, Barts and the Centre for Immunodeficiency (?).
probably worth a flight home!!
john

[beckag87]

Hi,

I was doing some research on my consultant and on PID and just happened to find the information about the day online and saw that he was presenting (Dr Senevitatne) but wasn't expecting the opportunity to attend. I found UKPIPS and emailed Liz who kindly offered me 2 places, an email I didn't see until after the event (silly me, thank you Liz!) but in the meantime his secretary had organised places for me and my mum.

From the perspective of someone who has only recently been diagnosed, there was a wealth of valuable information. I learnt about the basic immune system, PADs and CVID, the lungs and possible complications and IVIG/Subcut.

However, it wasn't the information gathering element that made the day so special for me. I was truly amazed by the support that I felt from other attendees. As I said in my blog, it made me feel like I am part of something, that there are others out there who feel the same way that I do and wake up with the same/similar illnesses, emotions and anxieties.

Becks

[liz2mac]

Hi all,
I agree that it was atruly fantastic day. My only query is, how do we reproduce it throughout the UK? I am thinking about this and will try to get somthing organised as soon as possible by UKPIPS. It was a great day for UKPIPS to network and we met with many new members, mny who want to help us either as members, medics or pharma companies. John (Mac) and I went up to Liverpool on the following Monday which is why I've been quiet on the forum for a week. We had very useful meetings at the two hospitals (Royal Liverpool & Alderhay childrens hospital) wnd they are very keen for their pateints/parents to know about UKPIPS.
Liz

[beckag87]

Are we planning on creating 'geographic areas'? That way it would be easier to organise i.e. by area and include the local immunology centres. I know this seems obvious but I can't think of a better way off the top of my head x

[gilliem]

I'm with you on this one, Becka. Now Tommy has Alzheimer's. I'm never going to be able to travel very far for a day meeting, whereas I used to get to the PiA AGM in London almost every year. There's also the issue of travel costs!
Best wishes,
Gillie.