Patient/carer day

First of all - what an excellent venue. It was the right size, and the spectacular views at lunchtime were a good contrast to the concentration of facts and opinions in the sessions.

The opening sessions covered quite a lot of familiar ground - but that is right and necessary on such an occasion, and it was well done, I thought. There was a good deal of discussion about the different drugs, which was interesting, particularly the emphasis on the fact that all drugs have side effects and we should be encouraged to ask for help to minimise them wherever possible (and accept the ones that we can't avoid).

For me, the most interesting and valuable parts were the second session and Dr O'Brien's afternoon session on research findings and possible future developments. I was only sorry that lack of time forced him to leave out his slides about CML and the elderly. Given the average age of his audience, perhaps it might have been better to leave out the pregnancy advice?

The balance of presentations and questions was good - much better than at Glasgow a couple of years ago, and it was interesting to hear that the panel were not always in agreement over ways to proceed in different circumstances.

I enjoyed meeting so many fellow-patients, and especially talking to some of the people involved with Spirit 2.