After our long summer break it was great to see so many members, old and new, at our September General Assembly. We have been approaching for a while our informal target of having 100 people in the room and this time we finally broke through and reached 105.
Another informal target that we have been discussing for a while is to take our membership back above 500. Barbara reported at the GA that with our recent new joiners the membership number now stands at 474. There is therefore a small chance that we will also reach this target before the end of the year. Fingers crossed!
Returning to the meeting I was, like everyone, impressed and amazed by Christina Garcia del Campo´s presentation. Thanks to her tireless efforts I think by now we are all aware that Nolotil and Metazimole represent a major danger, in particular for the British and Irish and other Northern Europeans. However, I for one had no idea of the scale of the problem and the number of known cases of death or serious illness.
It was equally shocking to hear how often the medical and pharmaceutical establishments have joined forces to block Christina´s efforts to shine light on this vital problem. This makes her persistence and steady success over eight long years all the more remarkable. We should certainly continue to publicise her campaign whenever we can, not only for our own sakes but also for the wider population. The truth is that we will never know just how many people may already have benefitted unwittingly from her work and there will be countless more in the future.
To end on a more cheerful note, we have a wonderful variety of trips and events to look forward to between now and Christmas, with both the Travel & Entertainment and Goodwill teams continuing to do a marvellous job. I look forward to seeing many of you at one of these.
Best wishes
Chris