Meetings
We meet in person but you can also join the meeting online using Zoom. If you wish to join in using Zoom, please email: john.amos@sechc.org.uk.
Meetings take place from 7.00pm til 9.00pm at the South East Cancer Help Centre on the first Wednesday of each month.
2025 Meetings
| January no meeting | 5 February | 5 March | 2 April |
| 7 May | 4 June | 2 July | 6 August |
| 3 September | 1 October | 5 November | 3 December |
We often have a speaker but always find time to talk about the concerns and issues of patients, their family and carers.
Speakers have included:
- consultants, doctors, researchers, dieticians and colorectal nurse specialists from hospitals including the Royal Marsden, Croydon University, St Georges, Epsom, St Hellier and East Surrey.
- therapists and counsellors from the South East Cancer Help Centre and other organisations.
- representatives of Macmillan, Bowel Cancer UK, Beating Bowel Cancer etc.
Past Speaker's presentations can be found on the Help and Information page.
Upcoming meetings
Wednesday 7pm 2nd July 2025
Speaker to be confirmed
Wednesday 7pm 4th June 2025
Carol Althorp, Colorectal Nurse Specialist, Stoma Care, Croydon Health Services will be joining us to talk about living life to the full with a stoma.
Past meetings
Wednesday 7pm 7th May 2025
TRACC stands for ‘Tracking mutations in cell free DNA to predict Relapse in eArly Colorectal Cancer’. The Part B observational component of the study opened in 2016 and has recruited more than 1100 patients across 36 UK sites. Part C of the study aims to evaluate the use of ctDNA to guide chemotherapy treatment decisions, after curative surgery, in patients with early stage colorectal cancer. It is a multi-centre, prospective, randomised study which will involve approximately 40 sites across the UK with a planned recruitment of 1621 patients over 4 years.
Most patients with high-risk stage II and stage III colorectal cancer are routinely offered post-operative chemotherapy but many patients are already cured by surgery alone. TRACC Part C will robustly answer the question of whether we can spare patients unnecessary chemotherapy if they are negative for circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) following surgery. This is vital to tailor chemotherapy to the needs of the patient, sparing patients from toxicity with the potential for huge cost savings for the NHS.
Wednesday 7pm 2nd April 2025
We are fortunate to have Hannah Tottenham, Registered Dramatherapist with Croydon Health Care Trust who will be leading a Dramatherapy Session with us.
Wednesday 7pm 5th March 2025
No speaker
Wednesday 7pm 5th February 2025
Beatriz Ceni Lopes, a student on the Industrial Design Master’s Program at the University of the Arts London, will be following up her talk she gave to us in December 2023 on developing a project to help patients with stomas. The aid Beatriz has now developed has been receiving really positive feedback and was shortlisted for two awards.
Annual Dinner 7.30pm Wednesday 8th January 2025
No meeting in January!
But we have our Annual Dinner at the Little Bay Restaurant in South Croydon on Wednesday 8th January 2025.
Wednesday 7pm 4th December 2024
We welcome Khaliesah Bolhassan (Sha), a trainee medical physicist specialising in MRI and Ultrasound at St Georges NHS Trust. As part of her training Sha is doing an MSc on Assessing the use of artificial intelligence in rectal magnetic resonance imaging and will be seeking our views.
Wednesday 7pm 6th November 2024
Nancy Adjei, Patient and Public Involvement Coordinator, The Royal Marsden Hospital, will be talking about Getting Involved at the Royal Marsden.