Eithne Weymes & Karen BennI attended the Advocacy Training Course for a weekend in November 2010.  It was an intensive few days, commencing on the Friday evening and going on through full days on Saturday and Sunday.  The participants were drawn from countries all over Europe.  I was the sole representative from Ireland!

Friday and Saturday were given over to presentations from distinguished people from the medical field.  They were extremely interesting and informative, if a bit technical in some cases.  I got a lot of new information and clarified some of my own questions.

The talk on ‘Epidemiology, Prevention and Risk Factors’ by Eva Negri, who is based in Mario Negri Institute in Milan, gave very practical advice on exercise, diet, energy intake and expenditure etc.

Dr. Alberto Costa, Director, European School of Oncology spoke in a down to earth, easily understandable way and I felt that any woman with breast cancer would be lucky to be treated by him.  He urged everyone to ask questions…always.

The presentation by Stella Kyriakides, Psychologist, dealt with the subject in which I am particularly interested…’Psycho-social services for Breast Cancer – what should we lobby for?’

On the Sunday, we had full day workshops on Communication Skills, Assertiveness Techniques, Handling the Media and Formal Presentations.

I came away from the weekend with a file full of information and a clearer understanding and appreciation of the work that Europa Donna does on behalf of European women.

EITHNE WEYMES
DUBLIN