LSI is 20 years old!
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Created on Friday, 31 August 2007 08:30
Lymphoma Support Ireland celebrated it's 20th birthday on September 15th 2007, during the annual All Ireland Lymphoma Conference.
This also coincided with World Lymphoma Awareness Day and the launch of the new LSI patient DVD .
It was a wonderful day, with good attendance and many old acquaintances renewed.
The presentations from the day are included in the Features section of the site.
There are many photos in the Gallery
Founded in 1987 as HUG, Hodgkins United Group, LSI has grown into a strong group under the Irish cancer Society Umbrella, with trained volunters and membership of the Lymphoma Coalition, a worldwide network of lymphoma support groups.
In 1987 in response to a request from a lymphoma patient, the Irish Cancer Society held an open meeting titled ‘What you want to know about Hodgkins and Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Approximately 90 people turned up for that meeting, patients, former patients, family members and carers.
As a result of that meeting a support group was formed. Initially it was called Hodgkins United Group or affectingly known as HUG. A committee was elected and from that day on the group grew from strength to strength. Regularly group meetings were held on a monthly basis at first and the topics discussed at these meetings covered everything from treatment options to complementary therapies. We also held informal meetings where members came and shared their experiences with others.
In 1989 the Irish Cancer Society carefully selected former recovered patients to take part in training programmed which was designed to train volunteers to talk to newly-diagnosed patients. This became a very successful service where we offered emotional and practical support and was operated on the 4th Wednesday of every month for the next 15 years. It was only dropped when it became obvious that patients were getting sufficient information from their medical team. The group still trains former members who now operate from their homes when a request is received from the ICS from a patient to speak to a member of the group.
In 1989 we started to travel to Belfast to meet with the Ulster Cancer Foundation’s Lymphoma support group. These meetings were funded by the then Co-operation North project. By attending meetings with others, we learned how they ran their groups and it was not long before we started to travel to the UK to attend the national support groups conferences in Manchester and also in Sterling in Scotland. All these contacts helped us to grow. A number of members continued to travel to these conferences until the Irish Cancer Society held their first National Support Group conference in Ireland in 1994.
Once the group was established in Dublin, we started to hold meetings in various part of the country to raise awareness of the group and also to give support to Lymphoma patients. These meetings have continued as and when they are asked for.
In 2002 HUG was invited to join the International Lymphoma Coalition and two delegates travelled to the US to take part in the AGM of the Lymphoma Coalition where we were accepted as a full member of the Coalition. The fact that our group has been granted full membership of this international body is quite an achievement for such a small country. Every year since then two delegates have attended the AGM of the Lymphoma Coalition in the US,
Having now achieved international recognition and set up our own website at www.lymphoma.ie we decided that it was time to change our name to make up more recognisable in the international scene. Lymphoma Support Ireland was chosen as a very suitable name and in 2005 we held an official launch of our name on the occasion of the first World Lymphoma Awareness Day. This day was very successful and each year since they we have held an awareness day on the 15th September.
This year on the 15th September we are celebrating 20 years of support and hope that the group will continue on for another 20 years and will give support to more newly diagnosed patients
