Representatives of Casting for Recovery UK & Ireland (CfR), the outdoor therapy programme which provides free fly fishing retreats for ladies who have, or have had, breast cancer, attended a breast cancer advocacy course in Milan recently, courtesy of Europa Donna, the European breast cancer advocacy group. CfR Director Jill Grieve (in the red dress) and Lottie Weston, a breast nurse specialist who volunteers her expertise at CfR retreats, were pleased to meet ladies from across Europe and further afield, including from Turkey, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Belorussia, Slovenia, Greece, Russia, Belgium, Denmark and Finland. The course hosted over 60 delegates, many of whom were medics and many of whom have had breast cancer and have subsequently joined Europa Donna to try to ensure high standards of care.
The weekend course in Milan saw some of the top oncologists in the city come to make presentations on everything from diagnosis and surgery to the roles lifestyle and genetics play in diagnosis. Also on offer were workshops giving delegates a whistlestop course in advocacy and the media, as well as delivering presentations. Jill and Lottie enthused other delegates by telling them about Casting for Recovery and we hope to stay in touch with the ladies from the course to continue to promote our specific brand of flyfishing-based outdoor therapy. The weekend was a great success and delegates were pleased to head home to put into action the things they had learned.