Twitter Chat ‘Asbestos-related diseases: diagnosis and what help is available?’ (Thursday, July 2, from 8pm to 9pm)

Posted: 29th Jun 15 1:25 PM

On the eve of Action Mesothelioma Day 2015, The National Asbestos Helpline is holding a Twitter Chat about asbestos-related diseases and what help might be available to sufferers.

We hope the Twitter Chat (Thursday, July 2, from 8pm to 9pm) will provide medical professionals, asbestos victims and their families with some useful information and also help raise awareness of asbestos-related diseases and the desperate need for research funding.

Action Mesothelioma Day is held on the first Friday in July. Hundreds of people gather in UK cities to raise awareness for mesothelioma, to call for better treatment and care for mesothelioma patients, for prevention of exposure to asbestos and to ban the export of asbestos to developing countries.

On the day the National Asbestos Helpline will be holding an asbestos advice clinic for anyone affected by past exposure to asbestos dust and fibres in Ellesmere Port. The clinics will be held on Friday July 3, from 11am to 2pm, at the Ellesmere Port & District Labour Social Club in Flatt Lane. Asbestos was widely used within Ellesmere Port’s heavy industrial oil, chemical and manufacturing units and the nearby River Mersey shipyards from the 1940s through to the 1980s.

Helen Bradley, Asbestos Disease Partner with Alderstone Solicitors, will attend an event organised by the Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group. Helen says: “Each year in Manchester and cities across the country people join together to raise awareness of mesothelioma, remember and honour the victims, and to call for better treatment and care for mesothelioma patients.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the event in Manchester, which is held in Lincoln Square, off Brasenose Street at 12.30pm. There will be a release of doves followed by a public meeting in the Town Hall between 1-2pm. Visitors will be able to hear about the latest developments in mesothelioma research from Professor Luciano Mutti (‘Mesothelioma Research-Hope for the Future?’).

This year’s key message is the importance of research into treatments for mesothelioma sufferers. One of the problems is that mesothelioma is a relatively rare cancer and affects mostly people of retirement age, so it is often forgotten and attracts very little research funding.

There are organisations trying to change this. For example, the Mick Knighton Mesothelioma Research Fund and the British Lung Foundation are raising millions of pounds, with every penny going towards promoting a greater awareness and sponsoring vital research studies into mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and incurable type of lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos dust and fibres 10 to 50 years ago. According to the Health and Safety Executive, 2,500 people a year die from the lung cancer and the Department of Work and Pensions says that 53,000 British people will die from mesothelioma between 2013 and 2037.

If you can join the Twitter conversation on Thursday (July 2) from 8pm @asbestos_help please use the hashtag ‘#ASBESTOShelp’.