Sending very best wishes to everyone for Christmas, hoping that it will not be too disrupted either by COVID or by achalasia.
It can be a difficult time when there is so much food around and so many festive fare to tempt you, but achalasia does not really recognise holidays so do be careful.
Are there any favourite recipes? The one I heard of recently was a traditional Christmas lunch put through a blender, and I can see how that would work very well for some.
Next month it will be two years since we established ourselves as a registered charity. We have been pleased to have produced our booklet 'Achalasia Explained' that can be downloaded from our website achalasia-action.org and we hope to publish the companion booklet 'Living with Achalasia' early in 2022. There are clinic posters and leaflets , including 'Achalasia and Education' that is designed for giving information to schools and colleges.
We also have a series of animated videos on YouTube on:
Understanding Achalasia youtu.be/BMEh6W6sJiQ
Diagnosing Achalasia youtu.be/MvfK03fmOkw
Treatments for Achalasia youtu.be/KKNaip0AXxA and
About our Achalasia Action charity youtu.be/vuVh2A4O6vI
The new year is a time for resolutions, and we will be having a session to map out our strategy for the next year or so. We have in mind that it would be good to establish a conference to continue our efforts to reach out to the medical profession.
We have also been contemplating ideas about how best to support research into this condition, which at the moment is not curable as such. This would be an expensive undertaking, particularly in relation to stem cell research which does have some potential, but there are also other research projects that might be valuable contributions to improving the quality of life for those with achalasia.
We are therefore interested in fundraising ideas. You can contribute to our charity by visiting our website achalasia-action.org/donate...
It seems very early days at the moment, but we all have the opportunity to start a process of financial contributions that will one day, we hope, establish a cure for this distressing condition.
