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Action Mesothelioma Day - London 2008

Action Mesothelioma Day in London

Caroline Pinfold attended two events in London. The first was a balloon release organised by the East London Mesothelioma Support Group ( ELMS). Caroline’s former client Eileen Beadle founded ELMS after Action Mesothelioma Day last year and vowed that she would organise an event for London to commemorate the day this year. Caroline Pinfold is a trustee and committee member of the ELMS group.

The event was held at Newham Town Hall attended by the Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales and hosted by the Borough’s Civic Ambassador, Councillor Omana Gangadharan. They spoke of their desire to raise awareness locally of mesothelioma and of their pride in helping to raise funds for research. Eileen Beadle spoke about her experience and thanked them for making her pledge to hold an event in London this year a reality. A prayer was said by Father Tom and there was a minute’s silence before the balloon release in memory of all those who had died from mesothelioma.

Eileen and her family, with the help of Town Hall staff held a coffee morning before the sponsored balloon release which helped to raise more funds for the event. The event was a great success raising over £1000 for St Bartholomew’s mesothelioma research fund. Eileen has pledged to make this an annual event in Newham.

The second event was the British Lung Foundations parliamentary reception at Westminster. The reception in its third year saw many MPs, campaigners and specialists in the field, including the “cancer czar “ Professor Mike Richards come together and discuss ways to tackle mesothelioma now and in the future. It was hosted by Michael Clapham MP who has worked tirelessly for asbestos disease sufferers. The Rt Hon Lord McKenzie of Luton spoke of the work carried out already by the government on behalf of mesothelioma sufferers and of the work planned for the future. Dame Helena Shovelton gave what she described as an “end of term report” on this and said that there was no time to get it wrong in mesothelioma cases.