Meetings Special Issue Newsletter 06 Spring 2012 News and information for young people living with cardiac conditions
Upcoming meetings Meetings are held in the South East of England, the North of England and the Midlands. For details of upcoming meetings please visit www.myheart.org.uk/meetings. Meetings are free to attend and give members an opportunity to meet and discuss their experiences in an informal but supportive environment. The next meetings will be in Birmingham on Sunday 20 May and Sunday 9 September 2012 and Leeds on Sunday 16 September 2012. If you have any queries about myheart meetings please contact myheart Coordinator Karla at myheart@c-r-y.org.uk or on 01737 363222.
P2 Members’ meeting experiences P3 Counsellor’s meeting experience P4 About myheart
Joseph Tanner – Brugada syndrome I first attended a group meeting in early 2009. I was fed up with NHS cardiac support groups – always being surrounded by people a lot older than me. So when I found out about CRY and this group it was good to know that I wasn’t the only one. The meetings are very informal and begin with psychotherapist Alan who is there to help with the flow of conversation. We start with a quick introduction of ourselves and our condition; although you don’t have to disclose anything you don’t want to. I get something different out of every meeting I attend. I’ve learned different things about my condition, learned about things that we’re entitled too and we’re able to discuss our feelings. It’s good to meet other people that feel the same. We then break for lunch; this time is for the group to chat between ourselves and to get to know each other better
without Alan. After lunch we have a group session with a cardiologist, in recent meetings it has been with Dr Michael Papadakis (fourth from left in above photo). This is where we get to ask questions that we forgot to ask our own cardiologist, or questions that came to you during the meeting. I’m getting to the stage of running out of questions to ask, so if you don’t have a question you don’t have to worry. Through these meetings I’ve met lovely people and when I’m having a tough day, I write a facebook status and people from myheart always give support. I continue going to the meetings because I hope to be a support for the new people that attend. When you are first diagnosed with a condition, you feel like you can’t do anything, you go through the ‘why me?’ syndrome. After a myheart meeting, you realise you’re not the only one and gain some new friends and hopefully feel a little better inside. In the future we hope that myheart will be able to do group fundraising together. Spring 2012
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