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BRITTLE BONE SOCIETY CONFERENCE ASHFORD, 2009

Councillor John Holland, Mayor of Ashford opened our conference and our new Chief Executive, Patricia Osborne gave a short talk introducing herself and wishing everyone a good weekend

We started of the weekend with a talk from Dr Allgrove going over many aspects of OI, particularly with reference to growth hormone.

Following the AGM were our new Trustees were elected

From Left to Right: Mark Peters, Catherine Potterton, Sheena Moreland, Elaine Healey (Chairperson), Patricia Osborne (CEO), Toni Potterton, Harry Venet, Simon Mckeown, Front left to right: Mark Ross, Samantha Renke, Emma Lewis, Yvonne Grant, Akram Lari

We then had a delightful lunch, lots of chatting and swapping information.

After lunch, Joanna Cannon an OI person who is a wheelchair user gave a talk on having a baby. It is still unknown if Joanna's son has OI.

Sue Lea, Specialist Nurse and Claire Hill, Physiotherapist gave a combined talk on day to day issues of OI focusing on the practicalities that arise on a daily basis.  Afterwards I know many people enjoyed speaking to them and I saw Claire dishing out some “exercises” (the dreaded word!) to a few.

We were delighted that Tracey Cox came along to our conference giving a talk to the young people (or was it the other way about) on emotional and sexual issues.

Then she moved on to the adults/parents!!!  Everyone agreed how refreshing and welcoming this talk was discussing issues so key to the membership.  But perhaps next year smaller groups to make it a bit less formal.

From Left to Right: Tracey Cox, Patricia Osborne, Elaine Healey

On the Sunday we were given a display by Simon McKeown on his art work and this was followed by a segment on wheelchair sports by four of our young members who were an inspiration to say the least.

From Left to Right: Jack Binstead, David Phillipson, Patricia Osborne, Adam Simmons, and Paul Lewis

Dr Dalton a geneticist from Sheffiled Children’s Hospital gave us an update on genetics and how much things have changed and how much change is expected in the next few years

Alison Wisbeach who retired this year as an Occupational Therapist at Great Ormond Street Hospital gave a talk on how she was involved at the beginning with the Society.

On May the 15th we launched our new look website which is based on a new user friendly Content Management System which allows the editorial team to keep the Society website upto date very easily.  We will also be launching new facilities and features. Please keep looking at the new section to keep up to date. Laslty the BBS Message Forum is now active again. Lastly we hope you enjoy reading about the launch of American writer Jodi Picoult's new book 'Handle with Care' which recently launched in the UK, with interviews in newspapers and Simon Mayo on the BBC. Please see the news pages.