The VARDA NEWS LETTER shares information useful to those affected by flight related DVT. Its purpose is to raise public awareness and encourage action to promote healthy flying. Short contributions are welcome (150-200 words), as are. pictures and cartoons.

Editorial

Another VARDA Newsletter year has assed, but this edition marks a very special VARDA moment: 29th April VARDA holds its first AGM as an independent non-profit support and advocacy group.

VARDA was created in association with the Aviation Health Institute in 2001. Since then, three or four times a year members have met somewhere in the Midlands of England to plan campaign activities and fundraising work. Given the wide geographical spread of members, not all can come to the meetings, but most have been attended by 12-25 people over the four year period and most members and associates have attended at some point.

The catalyst for creating VARDA was the death of Emma Christoffersen at Heathrow in 2001, after flying home from Australia and the willingness of her parents Ruth and John, to highlight publicly the injustice of her death. Since then, VARDA has brought together others who have been bereaved after the death of children, partners and parents who fell victim to flight related DVT and the many survivors of DVT and its killer follow-on, pulmonary embolism. Some survivors are apparently well. Others are physically damaged, some are severely disabled. In a world of more and less frequent flyers who cut across social divides, VARDA members represent a tiny fraction of the community of victims of flight related DVT.

From the beginning, VARDA has worked to profile the cause of healthy flying, in close partnership with the AHI and increasingly independently. Today at its first AGM, VARDA formalises its status as a non-profit support and advocacy organisation, promoting the interests of the flying public so to reduce the future risk to others.

We know that this means a very long campaign, with careful planning, hard work and a willingness to work with others concerned with related issues, as individuals and organisations, statutory, private and voluntary.

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Many people have expressed support to VARDA as it takes this second step in its development. They are too many to quote all of them here, but the following are a few examples.

Parliamentarians

Glynis Kinnock (MEP) who has been crucial in enabling VARDA visits to the lobby the European Parliament writes:

David Kidney (MP) who has been active on our behalf from the beginning wishes us well, drawing attention to VARDA achievements so far:

I h~ve been mightily impressed by the determined and dignified campaign of VARDA. This organisation has been a great power for good on behalf of all those who have suffered near-fatal illness or the sad bereavement of a loved one as a result of DVT. I am sure VARDA 's pressure has contributed to the achievements that have been recorded so far in terms of new research, the creation of the Aviation Health Unit and the raised awareness of the travelling public and their medical practitioners. Now VARDA has decided to become a fully fledged independent organisation. I support this move and welcome it most warmly. I offer you all my congratulations on this step and I assure you of my continuing support for all the tremendously good work that you are doing.

John Smith (MP), of the The Flight-related DVT Campaign, says:

VARDA members and associates invited to the meeting write in similar tones, often including new information of the work they are doing in their area to promote VARDA's work.

Anonymised, a few of the many include:

I will be unable to attend AGM as it is Election time... and I am very busy, so please accept my apologies. I have sent you a membership form completed and a cheque for £15. BB

After a long and somewhat heated discussion with my husband we've decided it would be too far (healthwise) for me to travel to the AGM the journey would be too much. I am very disappointed but being sensible about it.. .If you can make the next one a little closer to home I will gladly attend! If any help is needed, computerwise, I would be willing to do it. I'd like to help in some small way Once again sorry for not being able to come. CS

I always am up dated by my dad (about VARDA) but its great I will get it ISI hand (too). You may not be aware but my husband... has set up a casual dress day at work for £1 &it goes to VARDA in Nottingham. I also over the past couple of years have done a magazine article ( best) &reports &talked to tv &radio so I am always telling them about VARDA & DVT. I miss my mum terribly, however making people aware of DVT and flying has helped as people are still surprised to hear about it! Sorry we can't attend the meeting. JD

Work behind the scenes

A small ad hoc committee has met a few times over the last 15 months to guide VARDA towards today's AGM. In particular the work of the following has to be acknowledged:

Ruth Christoffersen, Chair of VARDA since 2001. She has worked assiduously to lobby people of influence in Wales, Westminster and Brussels. She has been a key media presenter. She prioritises careful communication with others to lighten their grief and shock.

Brenda Wilson has been a key figure in all activities, particularly in lobbying, fund-raising, membership, airport presentations and now in encouraging attendance at the AGM. Kay Porter, until 2004 Administrator at the AHI, has always supported VARDA and helped counsel members over a number of years. She has contributed generously to the publicity of VARDA's AGM.

Nick Balmforth who has carefully logged VARDA achievements in his finger tip document, now clearly on the web (www.VARDA.org), has made many media presentations. He arranged a benefit performance of Ionlanthe in Stratford as a major VARDA fund-raising event in 2003. John Price who has been a key organiser of petitions and mobiliser of funds for VARDA through Christmas card sales and other activities.

Pat and Richard Brown have succeeded in endowing lectures in Wales around DVT recognition and management in the NHS. The are developing the VARDA web page.

Rosemary Preston has also been active in the group, arranging venues and compiling this Newsletter for last four years.

AGM Elections and appointments

Elections

Seconded Nominations have been received from several people for one candidate willing to stand as Chair of VARDA for the next two years and another to stand as Deputy Chair. As such they will be elected without a vote. They are:

Chair: Ruth Christoffersen
Deputy Chair: Nick Balmforth

This is what they have written in support of their candidatures:

Ruth Christoffersen:
I will be 'chairing' the AGM and looking forward to meeting those attending. The media publicity that has been generated since Emma's death has been extraordinary, resulting in the 'awareness' ofDVT and the threat of air-travel to health being brought to the public attention. When, as a family, we decided to let the public know why Emma died so needlessly, we did not envisage the scale of the problem or effect that campaigning was going to have on our lives. We are all very glad the decision was made to 'go public' and help to save other peoples lives. As Chair of VARDA from the beginning I have worked hard to promote its cause. I will continue to do so as elected Chair of VARDA as a properly constituted body.

Nick Balmforth:
I am flight related DVT survivor, suffering multiple blood clots on my lungs and hospitalised in January 2001 and now on anti-coagulation therapy for the rest of my life. I turned to VARDA to turn my illness into a positive experience seeking to help raise public awareness hopefully to save lives. I put any communication skills I may have, particularly in relation to media work of which I have very long experience, using the press, radio and television, to the continuing benefit of VARDA. VARDA as a support and campaigning group has greatly helped me come to terms with my own life threatening illness and I am now pledged to do what I can to help it succeed in its essential purposes.

Appointments

VARDA officers will include a Secretary, Membership Secretary and Treasurer. Three candidates have expressed willingness to take on these roles.

They are: Brenda Wilson, Kay Porter, Pat Tortoishell

Brenda Wilson writes:

I lost Neil, my eldest son, at the age of 32. He died in his sleep of a heart attack, 21 Jan 01. He had flown with his family to Benidorm from Manchester, a flight of 2hours. A clot had gone from his leg to his heart and killed him. I have been involved with VARDA since May 2001. I am passionate about awareness of risks of DVT and flying. It was a short flight that Neil took and travellers generally think its long haul that puts them at risk. I have a great deal of experience within the voluntary sector. I have been a Samaritan working with adults with special needs and learning disabilities and was a club leader. I am a trained volunteer advocate-counsellor. I have a great deal of contact with the public, private, government and professional sectors, in all aspects of life. I have been caretaker admin for VARDA more or less since day one. In August 2004, I set up a bank account in the name of VARDA, and have been responsible for collecting membership 'dues' and paying income into the account since then (see financial report. Having had contact will all members and associates of VARDA, I have set up a rapport and trust with most, a vital communication link with all. I would like to continue and expand on this with the help of others within the organization

Kay Porter writes:

Kay worked at AHI for 8 years. She is familiar with the management of healthy flying campaign issues. She has played an active part in all VARDA events and activities from the beginning. She is experienced in computer work and information storage and record keeping. Pat Tortoishell writes: I was born in Birmingham and have lived in the West Midlands all my life. I am divorced with two grown up daughters and one granddaughter. I left school at 16 and worked in banking and insurance until I had my first daughter. I have since worked as a receptionist in a hair salon, a bookkeeper, and a secretary. I ran my own business for a few years selling spare parts for photocopiers to the US and Eastern Europe. During that time I completed my MBA with Staffordshire University. When I retuned to paid employment I moved into the Further Education sector and worked as a contracts manager, managing budgets of over £lm. I am now Head of Support Services for Black Country Partnership for Learning with responsibilities for finance, marketing, legal, and up to 15 staff. I am currently studying another university course -a Combined Humanities Degree at Birmingham University History. I have travelled widely, mainly to the US, but have been to South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia. I used to travel on about 4 or 5 long haul flights per year and was used to taking all precautions to avoid DVT. Unfortunately these precautions were not enough to prevent me from contracting pulmonary embolisms following a flight to Australia. I was lucky~ I was rushed to hospital and treated immediately, although I was not allowed to fly home for about 2 months. I now take fewer long haul flights and have Clexane injections before each flight to keep me safe during the flight. I still drink water, take exercise and only eat light meals. I would like to use my experience to support VARDA as its Treasurer.

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