Skinformati Spring10 I Issue24 Get up n ! o g and Latest BSF news London to Paris (and back!) Things to do in Spring 2010 Skinformation is fully sponsored by the British Association of Dermatologists News from the BSF Welcome to the first issue of Skinformation in 2010! In this issue, we delve into this year’s events by talking to the very people who have done them. You’ll also notice a Walk for Skin supplement with this issue too, which this year has gone through a bit of a revamp. We’re hoping it will be our most successful year to date, as we have seven new walks in new locations across the UK with added extras to make each walk more of a day event. Time to get involved! See you in the summer time, The BSF team THANK YOU TO! Thanks to the following people who have supported the BSF recently…Kate Herbert who held a book sale in her home and raised £24, Dr Sheila Clark and the British Paediatric Dermatology Society (BPDS) for holding a tombola at their winter meeting raising a fantastic £400…Dr Sharmila Das in Harrogate for doing the Great North Run and raising £900…Liz Rickman and the team at SureCare Croydon for their £100…Sixth form students at Backwell School in North Somerset raised £130.09 for the BSF by selling cakes at lunchtime and having a stall at their sports day that sold snacks and drinks. Thanks for all your efforts! I 2 I skinformation Fancy a run? We have fought long and hard to get spaces in many of this year’s runs, so if you’re keen and want to help out, we have spaces left in the 2010 British 10k run in July in London, and the Great North Run in Newcastle in September. Get in touch now, call 020 7391 6352 Who’s got the BSFFactor? We’ve been getting quite a few entries come in for our Skin Superstars 2010 awards. The idea is simple; we want you to nominate your GP, dermatologist or dermatology nurse if you feel they have gone beyond the call of duty to make a difference in your life. Having someone who understand and can help you manage your skin condition is priceless, so email [email protected] with details of who you’re nominating and why along with your details and leave the rest to us! BSF in the News The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed articles mentioning the BSF in the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Record and BBC Radio Scotland talking about some of our case studies as well as the dangers lurking in your handbag. Keep your eyes peeled for News BSF Children’s Fund We’ve just launched the BSF Children’s Fund which is focused solely on raising funds for research into childhood skin diseases. From now on you can choose for your donations to go to this specific fund. Our new Big Swim Challenge event will help kick things off this year for the fund. more coming your way… New Chairman and Trustees for the BSF The BSF have appointed Hugo Drayton as its new Chairman and Esra Erkal-Paler (pictured left) and Helen Sarkany as new Trustee. CEO of advertising business InSkin Media, Hugo takes over the Chairmanship from Gwyn Price, who has recently stepped down after his three-year term in office. Esra has a high profile background including time at agencies like Burson-Marsteller, as well as time at L’Oreal before joining the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as Director of Communications, Policy and Marketing. Record amount handed out by BSF New BSF website! By the time you read this some of you may have noticed the BSF website has gone through a bit of a radical overhaul. Aside from being a lot prettier, the new website should be easier to use and a lot more exciting, so do have a look when you get a chance. Go to www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk. The BSF have just awarded a number of research grants totalling £670,000 - the highest amount ever awarded in one go from the BSF. Looking into a variety of skin diseases and issues, ranging from contact dermatitis, melanoma therapy through to an in depth look at scarring alopecia, rest assured that your donations are being put to good use. As always these ten grants are taking place across the UK. For more details, have a look at our Research section of the website. www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk I3I London Marathon 2010 – well on the way to £80,000 He says: "Skin disease is a lot more common than most people think, affecting up to a quarter of the population at any one time and now accounts for more GP visits than any other group of diseases. Many chronic skin diseases like psoriasis are incurable, so we definitely need a lot more research." BSF supporter and consultant dermatologist Chris Griffiths is already a fifth of the way in his quest to reach his £80,000 fundraising target for this year's Virgin London Marathon. A professor at the University of Manchester and consultant dermatologist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Chris has set his ambitious goal of raising an incredible £80,000 for the British Skin Foundation at the start of January 2010. If he manages to raise this amount, he will have raised a penny for every person in the UK living with a skin disease. I 4 I skinformation A month and a half into his campaign, Chris had managed to raise a staggering £16,300 and is determined to carry on training despite the recent freezing weather. He says: "Training was going very well until the cold weather started. Aside from making running outside slightly dangerous, I had a further setback by slipping and falling on an icy farmyard in Cornwall over Christmas and broke a couple of ribs" says Chris. With his health now back up to scratch, he is now regularly running half marathons every weekend in preparation for the race on 25th April. Local skin doctor marathon target "I am fit for my age having trained for a triathlon last year. I use to be a cross-country runner when I was younger and have been running regularly over the years but have never run a full marathon before. I'm aiming to finish the run in four hours and 20 minutes, so we'll see" he says. £80,000 is a huge fundraising target, although Chris is adamant that he'll give it his best shot. "I'll be relying on raising the amount through BSF supporters, my colleagues, friends and family. I'll also be getting support from the British Association of Dermatologists. News about me doing the marathon has provoked reactions ranging from highly impressed and highly supportive to believing this to be a sign of incipient madness!" Like the idea of running? We still have places in both the British 10k in May and the Great North Run in September 2010, so get in touch with our events officer Naomi [email protected] or call 0207 391 6352. If you'd like to raise money for the BSF at this year's Virgin London Marathon, get in touch! To sponsor Chris Griffiths please visit his Justgiving site: www.justgiving.com/Chris-Griffiths or call 020 7391 6341 www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk I5I It’s GRIM out there… At the end of last year we were contacted by a team of eleven locals from Kew in Middlesex who were taking part in the GRIM Challenge, in aid of the BSF. The BMI Healthcare’s Procurement Team were amongst 2500 other participants who took part in 2009’s GRIM Challenge on December 6th. They raised an incredible £3120 after completing the gruelling 8 mile course. We caught up with a couple of the team members to find out how it all went on the day. Nick Barnes and the team had been training hard over the autumn months in preparation. He says: “Before the race, some of us couldn’t even run for the bus, so the feeling when we crossed the line was incredible! Luckily we had some good weather, which helped, although nothing could prepare us for the first deep puddle. The heat was literally zapped out of our legs! The race itself was tough and hugely varied; you just never knew what was around the next corner.” Despite one team member spraining their ankle and needing hospitalisation, the majority finished within the top half of the race. Nick says: “We are really pleased with our result. We had a great deal of support from friends and colleagues and the company has been really supportive in publicising the fundraising page in our I 6 I skinformation internal magazines. The British Skin Foundation is a fantastic cause and so many people were delighted to see we were raising money for them.” Another member of the BMI team, Clare Hasler, has now completed the challenge for a fourth time. “We wanted to do something a little different and now we have. The GRIM challenge gave us a chance to really bond as a team, raise money and get fit in the process.” All eyes are now set on the GRIM Challenge in 2010, with Nick intent on making next year’s race team even bigger. He says: “Look out Grim Challenge 2010! We are definitely up for the event next year, and hoping to bring along a few more colleagues. Some of us are carrying on with the fitness regime and will be running some half marathons in March next year.” Fancy pushing yourself a little bit harder in 2010? If runs simply aren’t exciting enough for you, find out a bit more about the range of challenge events we offer which are a fantastic way of raising money for the BSF whilst having the adventure of a lifetime. See the events section of the BSF website for full details. 2 1 Events Calendar 2010 The rest of this year promises a huge amount of things to get stuck into, from local swims to treks up mountains on the other side of the world. Take a sneak peek here of what’s on offer and give us a call on 020 7391 6341 for more information… Ongoing: Big Swim Challenge in aid of the BSF Children's Fund. Do however much you can, ten lengths, ten miles, with ten friends. Set your own challenge, you have the end of the year to complete it so this could be the hardest or equally the easiest fundraiser ever! Ongoing: Open Gardens Now that we’re finally getting to see some blue skies and a bit of sunshine, this could prove to be the ideal time to hold your own party or BBQ in aid of the BSF. House parties work just as well, just charge a small amount and send the proceeds to us! May – June 2010: Walk for Skin this year we’ve given the walks a bit of a revamp, so you now get a new set of venues and locations across the UK, as well as added value by being able to visit historic houses and even a ferry ride! Visit www.walkforskin.org.uk September 29 – 3 October London to Paris Bike Ride: Cover 300 miles over 5 days through stunning scenery and finish off with a glass of champaign underneath the Eiffel pEf% \[:_Xi`k Tower. We’re looking to repeat the success of I\^`jk\i the event from the last two years, so if you’re on the hunt for adventure, this might well be the answer to your call. October 1 - Golf Day at the Belfry: Play a day’s worth at the world famous Belfry course, home to the PGA in the UK and one of the most historic sites in golfing history. Day competitions finished off with an evening’s worth of fine dining make this a real treat for keen golfers. Halloween 2010 - Scared out of your Skin: take part in any number of spooky ghost walks around the UK and raise money for us by getting scared! June 27 – Fitzroy Summer Fete (London): Close your eyes and imagine a whole day’s worth of good old fashioned fun. Food stalls, retro funfair games and live music will help make this a day in London to remember! www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk I7I Running all over the w rld We’ve heard of Chris Griffiths training hard to do this year’s London marathon, but this couple from Oswestry in Shropshire have literally gone that one step further and have been training… all over the globe. As part of their round-the-world trip, Sarah Healey and Stuart Manford have taken the chance to train in some of the most exotic locations in the world. Over the course of the last year, the duo have been making their way across New Zealand, Australia, China, America, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, and finding enough time to put in some training at the same time. Although the two have previously competed in swimming events for their country, they have never taken part in a marathon before but are I 8 I skinformation determined to complete it. Sarah’s old swimming coach died from skin cancer in 2004, whilst Stuart's family has been deeply affected in the past by skin cancer. He says: “The stress of it has affected my whole family. My granddad died of skin cancer and my father was diagnosed with a form of it in 2000. Since then he has undergone numerous treatment and operations from which he has now fully recovered.” Both are running in aid of the BSF Skin Cancer Appeal, and by the sounds of it, enjoying it too. Sarah says: “It’s all been going fine so far. Seeing as we were doing the backpacking thing, the months we spent in Asia were spent running along beaches and dirt tracks whenever we could.” We’re always trekking up mountains or surfing or swimming When we caught up with them in November 2009, the couple had just arrived in Cairns, northern Australia with plans to head down the coast to Melbourne before spending a further five weeks exploring New Zealand. The constant change of location provided them with a real test, as Sarah explains, “We’re always trekking up mountains or surfing or swimming, so there’s a lot of cross training at the moment.” Stuart adds: “I have never done a marathon, and I am pretty terrified at the thought of it to be honest. This is going to be very different, and will be a great challenge.” Despite having recently returned to the UK in the middle of February, all efforts are now on their fundraising. “I don’t think the majority of people in the UK take care of their skin nearly enough. Anything that we can do to help highlight the devastating effects of skin diseases like skin cancer can only be positive. I think that the British Skin Foundation is a great cause, and I hope that the money we raise can make a real difference,” says Stuart. To sponsor Stuart and Sarah, head to their Justgiving site: www.justgiving.com/ stuartandsarahrunlondon/ or call 020 7391 6341 www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk skinformation I9I BSF Research: Child eczema sufferers given a shining light In the last three years alone the BSF have awarded £2.7 million pounds to research projects looking into all sorts of skin diseases, from alopecia through to vitiligo. We take a look at one we recently funded at the tail end of 2009. Childhood eczema Dr Sharmela Darné, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Dr Darné and her team are looking into the effectiveness of using ultraviolet light to treat cases of childhood eczema. Using a technique known as Narrowband Ultraviolet B (NBUVB) phototherapy to treat children with moderate to severe atopic eczema, the team hope to be able to assess the effectiveness of using this as a means to manage the skin disease in children. Although this method of phototherapy is already used as a method to manage atopic eczema in adults, little has been done to determine how effective NBUVB is when applied to children. For some childhood eczema sufferers, traditional treatment such as the use of topical creams simply does not work. Phototherapy is regarded as the next option, although it is only available in some and not all dermatology departments in the UK. Atopic eczema is an extremely common skin disease with up to one in five children in the UK affected by the disease. Dr Darné explains: “It is easy to underestimate the impact severe I 10 I skinformation eczema has on children and their families. The disturbance in quality of life has been found to be on par with caring for a child with diabetes. Itchiness, loss of sleep, pain and frequent infection are just some of the symptoms children suffer from. On top of that add the emotional and psychological effect it can have on a child’s appearance, as well as the feelings of guilt, stress and frustration in the parents as a result. “If our study proves fruitful, this may persuade health managers to make the treatment more accessible for all NHS patients in the future, potentially helping the millions who suffer with the disease.” For more information about the research that the British Skin Foundation funds, head to our website and look under our Research pages. a l la h o O (and back) aris! P o t t i de they ma Back at the end of September 2009 an intrepid team rode over 300 miles over the course of five days in the Schuco London to Paris Bike Ride. We caught up with Dr Ian Coulson to ask about his unforgettable experience and why you should do the ride in 2010… How did the whole bike ride go? The bike ride went really well, I really enjoyed it. Some days were more difficult than others, but overall I’d say it was very do-able. The first day had a couple of difficult hills, but as everybody has fresh legs it was all okay. Tiredness had set in by the second day, so we started off slowly, but by the afternoon, with the sun shining, team spirit was high, and muscles had warmed up, so we were able to pick up the pace and get to the hotel in good time. The third day was lovely as we enjoyed the beautiful countryside on the banks of the river Somme. The feeling of arriving in Paris on the final day was truly amazing, especially as we were escorted by two vans through the centre of Paris, so felt safe amongst all the traffic. How much training did you have to do? I started my training only two months before the ride, which I found was plenty of time. On some weekends I didn’t always have time to do long practice rides, so would try to do regular shorter rides during the week. Some people did up to six months training, but I guess that depends on your level of fitness. My training was not solely on the bike, I went to the gym and did running too which were helpful. How do you feel now? Would you recommend it? I feel great! It was such a big achievement for me and an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. I would definitely recommend it. It was so much fun but also a big challenge. I would definitely do it again, there was a great sense of team spirit and we passed through some stunningly picturesque villages. How challenging would you say the ride was? The ride wasn’t too difficult as we had plenty of stops for food and water. There were some lovely stops at local café’s along the way and during tough times the Discover Adventure team (who run the logistical side of things) were there for motivation. We all helped each other out if anyone was finding it tough. To find out more about this year’s Schuco London to Paris bike ride, contact Naomi our events officer on 0207391 6352 or email [email protected] or visit the events section of our website! www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk I 11 I Join us in the swim challenge Make a splash in 2010! Support children with skin disease by swimming 10 metres, 10 miles, with 10 friends or over 10 days or whatever you can think of To find out more call 020 7391 6341 or email [email protected] Registration open throughout 2010 www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk