CLL Horizons and workshop – an update

I’ve just returned from attending two back-to-back conferences on CLL in Edinburgh. The first was the international  CLL Advocates Network (CLLAN) Horizons conference for CLLAN members. The second was the 2019 International Workshop on CLL (iwCLL), a major medical and scientific meeting. Both conferences were excellent.

Horizons focused on CLL patient advocacy group models from around the world, what made them work, where improvements could be made, and where the future was heading. There was a lot of discussion on sharing of resources amongst the various groups, so as not to “reinvent the wheel”, and you will soon see examples of this here on our site.

Psychosocial support provision, use of social media to communicate among individuals and groups, examples of successful advocacy, and the various ways in which advocacy groups can make positive contributions to research were major components of the formal presentations. There were also several presentations about the current state of the science and medical therapeutics of the disease CLL.

I was invited to present the story of a new advocates’ group, on how we’re developing CLLANZ and lessons learned, as well as the future role of the organisation. Click below to view my presentation.

The iwCLL meeting (attended by close to 2000 delegates) covered in great detail the science and the medicine of CLL in 2019, and the directions investigative science and medical therapeutics will take in the next few years.

I will be sharing specific aspects of interest  from the conference presentations with you on this website , over the next few weeks, linked to areas of research and treatments

Best wishes

Neil Graham