FTWW backs Welsh NHS Confederation call for conversation on future of nation’s health and wellbeing

32 organisations, including FTWW, have come together to support the Welsh NHS Confederation’s call for a cross-government national conversation on the future of health and wellbeing. The organisations, from a range of sectors in Wales, believe it is for all government departments, ministers and sectors to ask what they can do to support the health and wellbeing of people now and in the future. Read more here.  

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Becci is a white woman with short red and orange dyed hair. She is sat in her kitchen speaking to a reporter who is off camera.

PMDD: Becci Launches Petition

FTWW members and PMDD Champions, Becci and Laura, featured on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast regarding Becci’s Senedd Petition to improve care for the condition (1.35.00 on). Becci also talked to BBC Wales News Online and BBC Wales Today.  ITV’s This Morning programme also highlighted the campaign, and discussed PMDD in more detail, to help viewers understand symptoms. Watch here (from the 3.25 mark). Becci is calling for PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) to be part of core teaching for healthcare professionals in Wales, as the condition is so misunderstood and under-recognised. Please sign and share her petition, here.     

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#EmbracingEquity in female health – Our blog for WCVA

Thanks to WCVA for featuring our International Women’s Day blog, which explores the need to #EmbraceEquity in Health in Wales. FTWW’s members describe many & varied barriers to accessing optimum healthcare; our aim is to raise awareness and offer solutions! Read it here: https://wcva.cymru/views/embracingequity-in-female-health/

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Ask your MS to meet us at The Senedd

As part of Endometriosis Action Month, FTWW be teaming up with Endometriosis UK later in March, when we’ll be inviting Members of the Senedd to come and find out more about endometriosis and what they can do to support their communities. Tag your MS in our tweet and ask them to come and see us! Not sure who to tag? Find your constituency and regional members here.

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Endo March is BACK!

Worldwide EndoMarch is coming to Wales again. Cardiff will be the location for the South Wales event, with the march taking place on Sunday 26th March. We will be marching through the streets of Cardiff with the hope of promoting awareness for endometriosis, and the need for faster diagnosis, greater education, and more funds for research into better treatments and an eventual cure. Find out more and book your space here. 

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FTWW Volunteer, Dee Dickens

Period Proud Launched

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m talking about it now, as I don’t want anyone else to go through this” – FTWW Volunteer Dee Dickens We are delighted that the Welsh Government has launched Period Proud, an intersectional plan that FTWW and volunteers – including Dee – have been involved in. As Dee highlights in her interview with WalesOnline, so many girls and young people who have periods miss out on education and recreational activities due to period poverty and lack of access to products, menstrual wellbeing education and support – all of which contribute to shame and stigma surrounding…

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Disability History Month – Taskforce representation

16 November – 16 December is Disability History Month, and this year’s theme is Disability, Health and Well Being. The Covid Pandemic has demonstrated across the UK and around the world just how fragile the Rights disabled people have secured for themselves are, and this was of course highlighted in the Locked Out report. We are pleased therefore to continue our representation on Welsh Government’s co-produced Disability Rights Taskforce, representing members across a number of working groups – including Independent Living: Health and Wellbeing, which held its first meeting on 23 November and was Chaired by our very own trustee, Willow. 

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Jane Hutt MS

Period Proud – Jane Hutt MS thanks FTWW

Heledd Fychan MS led a short debate about enshrining the strategy on period poverty in legislation, like the Scottish Government’s Period Products (Free Provision) Act 2021. The Minister for Social Justice announced a plan for eliminating period poverty and achieving period dignity for all by 2027 was coming soon. The minister also thanked campaigners and organisations who have supported the work, including FTWW. You can read the full transcript of the debate, here: https://record.assembly.wales/Plenary/13044#A75684

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Women’s Health Plan for Wales Launched by Third Sector Coalition

A report published by a coalition of charities and health organisations, on International Day of Action for Women’s Health, says women in Wales have poorer health outcomes than men and urgent action is needed to ensure they receive equal care and treatment.  Leading the Women’s Health Wales coalition of over sixty charities, UK-wide umbrella organisations, Royal Colleges and patient representatives, British Heart Foundation BHF Cymru and Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales (FTWW) have today [Saturday 28th May 2022] published a Quality Statement which calls on Welsh Government to improve healthcare for women, girls and those assigned female at…

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presenter Alex, who has long dark straight hair and is wearing a pink jumper, speaks to Endometriosis specialist Richard Penketh, who is wearing green clinical scrubs. He is showing her endometriosis tissue on a laptop screen

ITV Wales This Week: Living In Pain – documentary shines spotlight on Endometriosis crisis in Wales

                      A number of FTWW volunteers and supporters featured in Alexandra Hartley’s documentary for ITV Wales This Week: Living In Pain, which covered the issues facing endometriosis patients in Wales – including a lack of specialists and access to them, long waiting times for surgery, and the average diagnosis time of nine years – the longest in all of the home nations.  Dee, FTWW’s Engagement Officer, was interviewed for the programme and had this to say, ‘We need urgent intervention from Welsh Government…If you put ten of your female friends or…

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A screengrab from the online meeting of FTWW, BHF and the Senedd's Health and Social Care Committee

FTWW Gives Evidence on Women’s Health to Senedd

  Thursday March 10th saw representatives of both FTWW and British Heart Foundation Cymru called upon by the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee to give evidence in support of a women’s health plan for Wales.  FTWW and BHF Cymru have been co-facilitating a third sector coalition, made up of a number of Royal Colleges, specialist charities, and patients, in developing a vision for women and girls’ health in Wales which has a holistic, life-course approach and encompasses a range of physical and mental health issues, all which have a particular impact on women. On behalf of that Coalition, our two…

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Beth Hales, FTWW Volunteer, presents the petition to Jenny Rathbone and a number of MSes.

Petition to Improve Endometriosis Healthcare in Wales Delivered to The Senedd

Calls for urgent action on waiting lists, more specialist staff and an end to the postcode lottery impacting endometriosis patients across Wales. Support from Sian Harries, Amelia Womack, Jenny Rathbone MS, and patient-led women’s health charity Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales. A petition calling for Welsh Government to Improve Endometriosis Healthcare in Wales was handed in to Jenny Rathbone MS, Chair of the Women’s Health Cross Party Group, at the Senedd today (Wednesday 2nd February 2022). The charity Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales (FTWW) is warning that care for Welsh patients is in crisis and needs…

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White text reads ‘Ein Strategaeth’ and ‘Our Strategy’ on a green overlay. The background image is the timber structure inside the Senedd building.

Women’s Health Included in Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee Priorities

Exciting news has emerged from the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee. On 15th December, the Health and Social Care Committee published its priorities for the next 5 years – and Women’s Health is amongst them. Our supporters will know that this is something on which FTWW has campaigned long and hard, so we’re incredibly pleased to see that ‘listening to lived experience’ will be fundamental to how the Committee will work.  The Committee’s Strategy document lists the following as key to improving outcomes for patients in Wales: widening understanding of unconscious bias access to services for long-term chronic conditions…

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FTWW Responds to Health Minister’s Comments on Lupus Report

On Wednesday 3rd November, Mark Isherwood MS submitted a plenary question to the Senedd asking “How is the Welsh Government supporting people with autoimmune diseases?” (OQ57098). Mr Isherwood, who is Chair of the Cross Party Group (CPG) for Disability, followed up with a longer question referencing FTWW’s report, Making the Case for Better Lupus and Rare Autoimmune Disease Care, which you can watch here: Patients with diseases like #lupus, #vasculitis, #Sjögren‘s and #scleroderma are missing out on better care in Wales.@MarkIsherwood is right to ask the Welsh Government to improve care for patients living with these conditons. pic.twitter.com/yz6pN28MzD — RAIRDA…

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A selfie of Jessica, a white woman with dark hair, with her partner, a white man with dark and silver hair, and their son, a toddler with blond hair wearing a grey long-sleeved top. Jessica's partner is holding their son, who rests his right hand on his Dad's shoulder. They are all smiling at the camera, and look very happy.

Jessica Nominated for Chwarae Teg Award

  We are absolutely delighted that our Recurrent Miscarriage Campaign Lead, Jessica Evans, is a finalist at this year’s Chwarae Teg Womenspire awards, shortlisted in the Community Campion category. Jessica has campaigned tirelessly for families experiencing the heartbreak of miscarriage, producing the ‘Making the Case for Better Miscarriage Care in Wales’ report, and liaising with health boards and charities to improve care and support for patients across Wales. We are incredibly proud of Jessica for the work she has done whilst experiencing her own losses. The Womenspire awards take place online on Thursday 30 September. We’re sure you’ll all join…

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a screengrab from a BBC Breakfast report. Dee, a white woman with dark hair wearing a blue floral dress, sits with the Newport Transporter Bridge in the background. She's not looking at the camera - she's speaking to the reporter who is out of shot.

Opinion: Engage Britain – Why we must be able to critique the NHS

By Dee Montague, Engagement Officer at FTWW Earlier this year, FTWW facilitated two focus groups as part of Engage Britain’s community conversations around health and social care. Our conversations were two of 101 held across Great Britain, looking to find out more about people’s positive – and negative – experiences of health and social services. One of our groups focused entirely on endometriosis, and the second had a general ‘women’s health’ focus. As part of the publicity around Engage Britain’s conversations and subsequent survey results, I was asked to be a case study for the BBC coverage, and was interviewed…

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The FTWW logo with a yellow ribbon that reads 'endometriosis'

Endometriosis Care in Wales is at Crisis Point

Since FTWW first came into being at the end of 2014, we have campaigned for better endometriosis care in Wales. This was made very clear in the 2018 report we co-produced with Welsh Government’s all-Wales Endometriosis Task & Finish Group. Right now, however, endometriosis provision throughout Wales is at crisis point. There are no endometriosis specialists in Mid or North Wales (although work is underway to improve provision in the latter), and access to specialists in England or Cardiff is not easily achieved. The two remaining endometriosis specialists in Cardiff are becoming increasingly inaccessible, with NHS waiting lists for surgery…

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FTWW’s Response to ‘Locked out: liberating disabled people’s lives and rights in Wales beyond Covid-19’

FTWW welcomes the publication of, ‘Locked out…’, a ground-breaking report on the impact of Covid19 on disabled people in Wales. We were pleased to be among the diverse and intersectional group of disabled people and organisations involved in coproducing it. We are encouraged that the report had Welsh Government’s full support throughout, and has been published it in its entirety with no redactions. A Minister-led task force is now being created, co-chaired by members of the disabled community, to implement recommendations. This will mean that the voices and experiences of disabled people in Wales are properly heard throughout discussions and that,…

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Senedd 2021: Ask your candidates to Make Women’s Health a Priority in Wales

The 2021 Senedd Election takes place on 6th May, and FTWW needs your help!  FTWW has written to candidates calling on them to read our 2021 Manifesto and make its 5 Wants key to their election campaigns – and future commitments if they are elected.  Our voices are more powerful when we use them together, so we are also asking our supporters to write to their local candidates. Will you ask them to adopt the manifesto and address healthcare inequalities here in Wales. You can use our FTWW bilingual template letter to candidates – which includes campaign links and graphics – or you might choose to…

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Improving Endometriosis Care in Wales: A Panel Event

On Wednesday 24 March, as part of Endometriosis Awareness Month, FTWW joined forces with Endometriosis UK and Fertility Network UK to host ‘Improving Endometriosis Care in Wales: A Panel Discussion’. FTWW members Anna Cooper and Gemma Doherty shared their powerful stories as patient representatives. They were joined on the panel by Mr Richard Penketh and Liz Bruen, key members of Cardiff’s specialist endometriosis team, Professor Jason Kasraie, Head of Fertility Services at Shrewsbury and Telford, Dr Anne Connolly, the Royal College of GPs’ Women’s Health Champion, and Senedd Member, Jenny Rathbone, Chair of the Women’s Health Cross Party Group. There was lots of positive discussion about projects in…

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