Every Monday, there is a Pub quiz night at the Blacksmith Arms. in Llanmaes. They use the opportunity to raise money for charitable causes and tonight I was presented with a cheque for £300. This is an amazing gift for which we are very grateful and will go a long way to achieve our goals of helping Head and Neck cancer patients.
Thank you so much.
We have been asked by the Head and Neck team in Cwm Taf to fund a device to aid patients who have been treated for Laryngeal Cancer.
The Expiratory Muscle Strength trainer has been found to be an essential part in the rehabilitation of these patients but unfortunately it appears they are not available under the NHS.
Faceup is therefore delighted to be able to purchase these for the Head and Neck patients.
It is with sadness, that I let you know that our friend Vera has passed away. She was a wonderful person who always had a smile and above all a positive personality. She will be sadly missed.
Her grandsons – Rhys and Owen raised over £3544 for her memory by running the London Marathon and we are eternally grateful for that effort.
I am pleased to say that all the places have now been taken for this event. We therefore have 10 runners who are going to use this event to fund raise for Faceup . Each one has set up a Just giving site so please find time to go onto the site and sponsor one – or more of them. All proceeds will be given to Faceup . The runners are :
| Dafydd Fardy |
| Grace Hughes |
| Corey Webber |
| Jeremy Hayes |
| Amanda Godoi |
| Grace Clancey |
| Leah Webb |
| Rob Adams |
| Mali Prydderch |
| Harri Hayes |
We cannot thank them enough for running for us
We are always looking to promote our charity and also generate some funds to help in our projects.
I am delighted to announce that we have obtained 10 places in this years Cardiff half marathon. We will offer these to anyone who wishes to run for our charity. We will provide running vests and all we ask is that the runner raises sponsorship monies for our charity.
If you are interested in taking one of these places please e mail me via:
faceupcymru@outlook.com
and we can sort the details out
Look forward to hearing from you
Mike Fardy
The team from Rhiwbina Dental Practice did an amazing job by running the Barry 10K with all the money being raised for Faceup – they raised £1014 for us
We cannot thank them enough for this incredible feat.
Diolch yn fawr iawn
We are delighted to announce that Faceup Cymru has been chosen as one of the charities by Mr David Powell, Mayor of Llantwit Major for 2023/24
As a small charity we are overwhelmed by this gesture and we are eternally grateful for this honour. This will bring much needed attention to our efforts. In particular we intend to use this opportunity to highlight the joint approach we have formed with Tenovus for the benefit of the patients who are seen in Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board. We had tried to get cooperation with Cardiff NHS but unfortunately to date they are not interested but we will persevere.
For patients who require support both clinical, pastoral as well as advice please drop us an e mail at : faceupcymru@outlook.com
or pop into the Faceup / Tenovus bus in the outreach carpark at McArther Glen Park designer business park on a Friday
Thanks again to Mr Powell and the Llantwit Major Council
Virtual reality is a computer generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real, making the user feel they are immersed in their surroundings. This has been used extensively in palliative care where patients have have had their pain therapy reduced from opiates to Paracetamol .
One of our Head and neck cancer patients contacted Faceup Cymru as he was in such a severe degree of pain with chronic infection of his lower jaw- osteoradionecrosis. He was unable to eat and had great difficulty in speaking. He had baseline pain level of 2 [ one to 10 pain scale ] but would intermittently have pain up to 10.
I have known this gentleman for nearly ten years and he has always been positive & smiling but when I saw him, I have never seen him at such a low ebb. he could hardly speak without being in pain and was very depressed. Unfortunately, he was not taking any analgesia until he had the pain so I asked him to commence on co-codamol 2 tabs three times a day but spent a long time with him going over the VR and gave it to him for a week for him to try and at the same time he would continue with his pain diary.
I saw him one week later and the difference was staggering, in fact unbelievable . He could now bite his jaws together, he could speak without bringing on any pain at all and his demeanour was smiling & happy and importantly, he was enthusiastic again about life.
We have linked with a local VR company and we have purchased a number of sets for the use of our Head and Neck Cancer patients so if anyone is in need of help please contact us and we will be glad to assist.
Also we have embarked on a research project with a VR company looking at its use in explaining to patients the extent of the disease – the initial stages of this research is very promising and we are hoping to go into clinical setting very soon
Tenovus Cancer Care is a Wales-based charity, which supports people and their loved ones to live well with cancer. The charity has three Mobile Support Units, which travel across Wales to bring cancer treatments closer to home.
The Units set up in local car parks, supermarkets, and community venues to limit the stress and cost involved with travelling miles to hospital.
Faceup Cymru is funding one of these Mobile Support Units to deliver treatments for Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB’s Head and neck cancer patients. This funding will allow Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHBs multidisciplinary team (MDT) to host clinics for head and neck cancer patients in McArthurGlen, Bridgend.
We had offered to replicate the funding for Cardiff and Vale patients but unfortunately they have refused our offer but we will continue to try and bring them on board.
We are very excited about this link and hope it is the beginning of a new chapter in the life of Faceup Cymru but more importantly will achieve our aim of supporting Head and Neck Cancer patients
Hi, I know a lot of you shop via Amazon. We have been invited by Amazon to purchase goods via them and then we will receive 0.5 % of the cost of your goods as a donation to Faceup. Obviously, where you shop is entirely up to you but if you do use Amazon , could you review the following to understand what you do :
www. smile.amazon.co.uk/b/node=17337655031
If you are happy to do this then copy this and put it into the search box and double click. Then follow the instructions.
Any problems please e mail me
Hope you are well and thanks for all your support
Kind regards,
Mike Fardy
Medical Advisor
