What happens in the weekly meetings?

Drink tea, knit and talk. Catch up weekly

What is the charity?
At the moment they are raising money for an ONSA machine, for the breast care
unit at Maritime hospital Gillingham raising for the local hospital
What are they doing to help raise money for the charity?
They get together and knit and when they have enough they sell the items at the
library, where they have meetings.
How will this help the charity?
Whatever is sold goes straight to the hospital
Is knitting more popular nowadays?
Knitting is growing popular; there are Facebook groups on knitting
Groups like this that raises money by knitting
Even younger people are being taught to knit (image of 9 year old who can knit)
Not many men are seen knitting, seen more as a woman thing
What do people get out of the weekly meetings?
This group is good, as it is social and a chance for some women to get out
Knitting actually helps lower blood pressure and with arthritis in hands
Do people need to be experienced to go to these meetings?
No, quite good if you dont understand a certain instruction or stitch, as others
who are there have experience and would be able to help
What inspired them to do this?
The group get together to decide what to do next.
As Angela is with a breast caner charity already (Medway in swale west breast
cancer registered charity) and already knew about the machine, she briefed it
to the others and they agreed as they are all ladies that it would be a nice thing to
do. Also Angela is a breast cancer survivor
Do you help out with other charities?
Previous charities they helped:
- Marie curie cancer care
- Macmillan
- Womens refuge

Last year the group did a charity on womens refuge

They try to do a variety of charities
3-4 months choose different charity
What does the machine do?
It costs 75,000
Machine called ONSA - One Step Nucleic Acid Amplification
Machine used when a breast cancer patient is having SNL Sentinel Lymph Node
Biopsy
What the machine does:
The machine scans the lymph nodes whilst breast cancer patients undergo
surgery, avoiding the need for a second operation if the cancer is found to have
spread to the lymph nodes.
Done during operation
The machine helps save theatre time as well as saving the patient coming in for
more surgery.
Are there other scanner machines?
Not in Medway, however they have these machines in Darenth and Gravesend
Aim
Raise as much as possible
Why they do local charities?
To help their own people within the community
Other information
Carole Turner leader and part of the knitting group
Chairman of The friends of the Library
Angela - Knows about the machine and is part of the knitting group
Angela is part of another charity that is also raising money for the ONSA machine