Monthly Archive for October, 2005

October 2005 – Tracey Richardson

Published by Tracey Richardson on October 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Sometimes I wonder just how much you can packing in to a month, well this month I think I found out. It all started with the pre publicity rounds for my book which was launched on October 17th, but before that date there was endless radio interviews and magazines interviews to give. Our launch was held at the Nike Victoria Park market store, a very appropriate location as Nike have been a huge supporter of Breath4CF and they were thrilled to be asked. Family, friends, colleagues and book industry people were all on hand to celebrate the launch of this long awaited milestone. Initial reviews were exceedingly encouraging but I knew the proof would always be when the book got out into the “real” hands of the public. After the launch it was straight back into the ralitlites of event management with a event at the end of the month.

This is was an annual Charity Duathlon in Hawkes Bay where Breath4CF was the receipent charity. The unusual aspect of this event on the Hawkes Bay Calender is that it’s a celebrity event were we (CF) import 9 well known faces/celebrities to participate in the event as 3 x 3 person teams. In order that it’s a level playing field we handicap and penalise each of the celebrities and make the event much harder for them, all in front of the crowd and all in good humour. The day starts with a kids Duathlon and each of these invited guests is out on the course encouraging these kids and talking to them about what they did as young 10 and 11 year olds, inspiring and motivating these kids to carry on with an active lifestyle. The entire day was a huge success, feedback from participants with amazing, they loved the fundraising for CF, the mixing with well know Kiwis and each of the celebrities commented on how wonderful it was to attend a community event and be involved at grass level sport. All up a fantastic experience for everyone.

Breath4CF goes GLOBAL! First New Zealand then the world… ok not quite but the first international office of Breath4CF has been set up and its in Canada. Check out the website breath4cf.ca. Its quite hard to find the words to describe the sense of pride I have that my idea has started this huge chain of events all over the world and that kids with Cystic Fibrosis world wide will be benefiting in exactly that same way as the NZ kids are. It is incredible what can happen from one idea.

As sad as it is the year is coming to a close, and I am forced to think of 2006 and beyond. No decision at this point as to my future but no matter what the last 2 months has in store for me its been an incredible journey so far.

October 2005 – Stephen Denekamp

Published by Stephen Denekamp on October 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

The end of the school year is upon us and so we had quite a few workshops before people headed off for exam leave but since then there have been quite a lot of other things going along.

Rainbow Youth has had its slogan ‘know who you are, be who you are’ translated into Maori, and adopted the version ‘Tu Tangata’; our volunteer group facilitators have been involved in some awesome training, making sure that they are supported in the wonderful work they do for us; new posters have been going out to schools as we were almost out of our old batch, and we’ve put up bookcases as we get ready for the arrival of new books and DVD’s for the centre.

There’s been a bit of travel this month as well. First we ran another successful workshop training with teachers down in Hamilton – these are always good opportunities to have discussion with staff about how to address such issues in schools. I also spent two days in Wellington with American Professor James Sears as we meet with people from different ministries, organisations and even a politician in working towards a 2007 cross-sector, international conference aimed at queer youth – VERY exciting stuff.

The Peer Sexuality Support Teams had their graduation for all the hard work they’ve done being a source of support and knowledge for other students in their schools. It was awesome to see some of the students again and hear about what they had done in their schools to promote health – as we hadn’t seen many of them since the training we gave in the first half of the year. PSSP would have made a world of difference at my school and to me back when I was a student. So congratulations to all of the young people involved and to Auckland Sexual Health for providing the service.

Sometimes life is incredibly random; I was walking down Queen Street and as I passed Whitcoulls, out of the corner of my eye I saw ‘Tracey Richardson: Going the Distance’ – the book written by on of this year’s other World of Difference winners. I had to do a double take. Then this morning as I was checking my letterbox, there was a copy of the book, sent by Tracey! Thanks Tracey – you’re an inspiration. I especially like the quote says on the card inside which reads, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

October 2005 – Joanne Thorne

Published by Joanne Thorne on October 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

This month has been one of my busiest so far and was filled with training courses, chick releases, field work and island trips…..

First off was a trip up to Auckland to help celebrate the announcement of the 2005 Vodafone World of Difference winners. This was a great night with many inspiring speakers and dancers! I also had an opportunity to catch up with some of last year’s winners and the great people of Vodafone!

Later that same week I travelled to Rainbow Springs in Rotorua for an egg-candling course. This is the method of shinning a torch on eggs to look for signs of development. It is used in the field to estimate how old our kiwi eggs are and also to see if they are fertile or not. As usual the Rainbow Springs team ran a fantastic course with loads of new information to take on board. I also caught a glimpse of one of Bushy Park’s eggs being incubated – not far off hatching now!

Then it was off to Wellington for an Avian first aid course held at Wellington zoo. This was run by Massey University wildlife veterinarians and covered basic first aid care for wild birds with a practical component where we all got to practice our new skills of bandaging and injecting fluid on ‘dummy birds’.

Next stop was an overnight trip to the Waitotara Valley to check out my two possible nests. One turned out to be just a burrow but the other was a nest. Unfortunately however I got there just in time to see a possum finishing up the contents of an egg. Pretty disappointing stuff to discover at 3am in the morning. The good news is that there was only one egg so I am expecting ‘Nui’ and his partner to lay the second egg in a new nest. I will attempt to lift this egg in a few weeks time.

Meanwhile…. Poutahi our kiwi chick was steadily putting on weight at Bushy Park on a diet of ox-heart, fruit, vegetables, cat biscuits and porridge. Her appetite was so good that she reached her release weight earlier than we thought and the day of her release back to the forest was set for the 19th October. She passed her final health screen and it was soon time to say goodbye to our first ‘kiwi kindy’ student! Poutahi was released into the Waimarino Forest where nearly 30 people from DoC, iwi groups, Winstones Forest and Bushy Park gathered to watch her go. It was a very satisfying day– this is a goal that Bushy Park has been working towards for a long time.

I spent the last week of October on Cuvier Island, a predator free nature reserve where I had the chance to practice my bird banding skills. Cuvier is an amazing place with abundant bird life, geckos, tuatara, the odd seal and fantastic weather! Getting banding practice is important preparation for our saddleback transfer next May and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it!

All in all, a very satisfying chapter in my World of Difference year…

October 2005 – Diana Hickey

Published by Diana Hickey on October 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

First on the agenda in October was the second NALAG conference, (National Association for Loss and Grief). I mentioned last month that Dr Janice Nadeau is a world renowned counsellor, and I should have added ‘teacher’ to that compliment also … “Working at the front lines” was really helpful. Addressing self-care in traumatic situations was one of the main points that Janice wanted to make, and she impressed the need for professionals to allow themselves to grieve too. We explored professional and personal boundaries during fraught family times and then went on to look at a family’s culture before illnesses, accidents and or deaths. By understanding more about the family make-up, she explained that we can assist them in being more aware of their situation and then dealing with the transition more easily.
That night it was off to Auckland to attend a Vodafone NZ Foundation celebration of the 2005 World of Difference winners. What a day! It was wonderful to see some of the other winners from 2004. The new winners were all very excited and rightly so…it’s going to be a real trip for them in the next 12-24 months ahead!
The month marched on rapidly. I have been working on a progressive muscle relaxation technique for children using music and creative visualisation as some of the kids on CHOC find their treatments really challenging and can’t sleep well for days due to discomfort or unease. It may sound simple but the highlight of my year so far was tiptoeing out of the room of a child in a deep sleep who hours before had been highly anxious and hadn’t slept for days. Through image, word and sound she had come to a place where she could finally rest for a while.
I continue to get public interest in the art therapy program and had a student/qualified early learning teacher come in to observe for a day. I’m also still continuing to offer in-house education to staff and this month gave a presentation to the team at the Children’s Acute Assessment Unit. They were a great audience as they asked some very specific questions about trauma and short term interventions using art therapy. Once I’d shown them what I do, we looked at the resources in the unit and brainstormed what would be best in the situation they have.
Labour day soon swung around and I had a day off so my partner and I made the most of the weekend and took off to Flock Hill…to go gliding…what an amazing thing! Sam (m’fella) tows the aircraft up into the air as well as being a pilot himself and I began instruction…that’s it…I’m hooked. Gliders are so different to airplanes…being totally reliant on your senses, updrafts and nature itself beats an engine in my books any day!
The following week, we, (some of the CHOC kids) won a prize in a local banner competition. The kids who had helped were over the moon and very proud of their efforts.
The organisation continues for the FUNRAZOR coming up on December, so if you know of anyone who’d like to raise funds of the Child Cancer Foundation by getting people to sponsor them “Shaving their Lid for a Kid”! Click on this link and get them registered ASAP! http://www.funrazor.org.nz/ Certainly it has been a hit here in Canterbury for the last few years so I hope this year we can do well too.

I finished the month doing part one of a two part professional development, but more about that next month. I’m off to Aussie next month too; to present research at the ANATA conference so there’ll be lots more to tell. Stay tuned!

October 2005 – Debbie Fewtrell

Published by Dr. Debbie Fewtrell on October 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Defeat Autism Now Conference – California

The big highlight of this month and probably the year was my trip to Long Beach, California to the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) Conference.

The world’s best and most experienced doctors, professors and scientists in the field of the biomedical treatment of autism and related disorders gather to educate parents and professional in this very exciting area of medicine.

This conference marked the 10th anniversary convened by Dr Bernie Rimland who has grandfathered the whole movement. With 1200 attendees (including around 200 doctors from every corner of the globe), the air of enthusiasm was palpable. A wonderful and inspiring interlude was watching a representative group of recovered (previously autistic) children who were interviewed on stage. They spoke animatedly about their lives and favorite things. There weren’t many dry eyes in the house!

A strong key message from the conference was that autistic kids are toxin accumulators i.e. they do not eliminate toxins well due to genetic propensity. If the toxin overload becomes too high the symptoms we associate with autism develop. This model particularly applies to those children with regressive autism who are born and develop normally then lose skills as a toddler and drift into autism. The increased levels of environmental toxins (i.e. all that we breathe, digest and absorb from without) that today’s children are exposed to compared to a generation ago is thought to be a key factor involved in the skyrocketing rates of autism. There has been a staggering 10-15 fold increase in the number of children diagnosed autism spectrum disorder in the last 15 years in the UK and USA. Genes take thousands of years to change. There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic! Environmental changes however have been enormous particularly with respect to the number and amount of chemicals, many of which are know to be toxic to nervous tissue.

The science behind the reduced ability to detoxify is well documented and some of the associated underperforming genes can now be identified by testing.

So you may wonder how do we undo all of this? One of the doctors termed it a “biological traffic jam”. However there are some simple principles that can be extracted from a very complex disorder! Needless to say putting it all into practice is not always quite so straight forward!
- Decrease the child’s toxin exposure with a particular focus on diet.
- Increase the level of nutrients by diet and supplementation – the quality of one’s nutritional status determines one’s ability to detoxify.
- Help the child to detoxify the child by increasing the child’s ability to eliminate.

Every child is biochemically unique and supplementation is targeted specifically for the individual. In fact, one saying that really stuck with me from the conference was that we should not be thinking about the syndrome of autism but “autisms”!

After the conference I was delighted to be part of the DAN practitioner training with 70 doctors from all parts of the world. Professor Elizabeth Mumper and Dr Nancy O’Hara walked us through the DAN approach with many valuable clinical pearls to take back to our practices. I have returned home to NZ brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. There are now a total of 250 DAN trained physicians worldwide.

TV3

I will be filming a piece for Campbell Live, TV3 over 21st -22nd November. They will interview some families too. This is a fantastic opportunity for the message of the biomedical approach to be heard. I am hoping it will inspire more doctors to learn about this approach which is the most effective way to reach more NZ children. Any doctors interested in the biomedical conference in February 06 please contact sally@acnem.org

Thanks Vodafone NZ Foundation for making all of this possible.