LETTERS: 'Thank you' for readers who helped Macmillan campaign for free cancer patient prescriptions

Dear Editor - After three years of campaigning we are delighted the Government has listened to us and abolished prescription charges for cancer patients from April 2009.
This was absolutely the right thing to do as cancer not only threatens your life, but can also make you poor.
Free prescriptions will transform the lives of thousands of people living with cancer who were struggling to pay for drugs.
All cancer patients are now entitled to apply for a five-year exemption certificate, which will entitle them to all their NHS prescriptions free of charge, not just those relating to cancer.
These certificates can be used from April 1.
This covers those who need prescriptions for the treatment for cancer, the effects of cancer, or the effects of cancer treatment.
The certificate can be renewed as many times as necessary.
To get your application form please visit your GP or oncology clinic.
And if you have already paid for an annual pre-payment certificate, you can get a refund for the months after April.
We simply could not have achieved this without your help, so thank you again to all those who helped Macmillan campaign effectively and make a huge difference to the lives of those living with cancer and those people it may affect in the future.

Gillian Lord
General manager
Macmillan Cancer Support

Supermarket staff and customers help raise £2 million for cancer care

STAFF and customers of the Somerfield store in Minehead have helped the supermarket firm to raise more than £2 million to improve the lives of people living with cancer.
The total has been raised since Macmillan was voted as Somerfield’s charity partner in March of last year.
The Minehead store, in The Avenue, contributed £1,131, which will be put toward the cost to the charity of employing a head and neck cancer nurse specialist in Somerset.
Somerfield head of press and charity Pete Williams said: “We are very excited to have raised £2 million for Macmillan.
“We set ourselves an ambitious target at the start of the partnership and I am very proud to see us exceed it.”
Macmillan provides practical, emotional, and financial support to people affected by cancer.
The money raised by Somerfield stores will help to fund a range of cancer services throughout the country, providing valuable support in local communities.
It has been collected through fund-raising in-store, sales promotions and gift items such as the Little Book of Treats, and a collection of recipes from supporters and celebrities across the UK.
Somerfield involved all of its 42,000 employees in its fund-raising efforts across its 850-plus network of stores nationwide and hoped also to raise awareness among its 10 million customers of the work and services provided by Macmillan.
Mr Williams said: “From big picnics to sponsored head shaves and cycling challenges, the support we have had for Macmillan has been incredible.
“It has been fantastic to know that every penny raised will help support people living with cancer in local areas.”
Macmillan Cancer Support chief executive Ciarán Devane said: “This is a phenomenal achievement and is a testament to the commitment of Somerfield staff and customers to improving lives in the local community.
“We are grateful to everybody involved.”
With more than two million people living with cancer in the UK, the money raised by Somerfield will help Macmillan with its commitment to reach everybody affected by cancer by 2010.

LETTER: Think about animals before buying 'pink' in breast cancer awareness month

Dear Editor - Anybody who has picked up a magazine or walked through a shop recently, knows that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It is hard to miss the displays of pink products that benefit breast cancer charities.
But before you buy, ask yourself if your donation will really help women in relevant ways, or will you simply be funding the same useless animal experiments that have been going on for decades?
The basic model of cancer research has not changed much since the 1970s: Grow cancer cells in a laboratory, inject them into mice, attack the resulting tumours with the experimental drug du jour and see what happens.
But there is a world of difference between humans and animals in their metabolism, biochemistry, physiology, and genetic make-up, so the results seen in mice cannot be reliably applied to people.
Meanwhile, as we spend millions of pounds to cure cancer in mice, we are missing opportunities that could help real women in the real world - such as making breast cancer treatment more accessible and educating people about the role that diet plays in cancer prevention.
Sadly, new technologies that could truly benefit patients - like the three-dimensional model of human breast cancer recently developed by British scientists, made by growing cells from normal and cancerous breast tissue - remain the exception.
This October, we do not need more pink ribbons or pink T-shirts - or mice with breast cancer.
We need a commitment to funding programmes that will result in true medical progress, including better patient services, education, and vital research that does not rely on outdated animal models.
Toni Vernelli
Animal Aid
Bradford St
Tonbridge, Kent
TN9 1AW

LETTER: Thanks for making cancer care cards

Dear Editor - I would like to say an enormous thank you to everybody who has so generously spent time designing and making unique cards in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care this year.
Each year, Marie Curie Cancer Care runs the Create a Card for Cancer Care campaign in partnership with ‘do crafts’, the website and magazine for crafters.
We call upon our supporters to create one-off cards which are then sold in Marie Curie Cancer Care Shops across the UK for £1 each.
This year alone, we received a record-breaking 111,400 cards, and I would like to call on your readers to go along to their local Marie Curie Cancer Care shop and buy one of these bespoke cards.
All the money raised will help Marie Curie Nurses like me care for terminally ill people in their own homes, allowing them to spend their final days with the people they love the most.
Lorna Clarkson
Nursing Ambassador of the Year for England
Marie Curie Cancer Care