I was considering whether to go to the patients bechets conference in Italy in September. Has anyone been to the last conference which was held in Paris or any other ones before that? Just wondering if it's worth going to or if it's more for medicial professionals? Thanks.
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mtmunster
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I attended Paris 2014 and I highly recommend it. There is a conference for the medics which runs alongside the patient conference, but the patient conference is its own entity.
In Paris there were no more than about 20-30 patients in total, so it was small, but there were few of us patients from the UK, plus individuals from as far afield as Kenya, Australia and Iceland.
We heard from some of the professors who are regarded as the leading authorities on Behcets from around the world and it was incredibly interesting to hear of all the latest research going on and the latest advice for medics and patients.
Another UK patient and I were considering organising a trip from the UK so that anyone who would like to attend but would rather do it alongside others in a similar situation can do the journey and the hotel stay as a group with support from each other.
If you'd be interested in joining together as a group - and anyone else who's reading this who would be interested in doing the same, please message me on here and I'll put everyone in touch.
Hi mtmunster, Will and I actually met up for the first time at the Paris Conference.
It was my first International Conference and I did find it physically challenging but echo all Will's comments in that it was very worthwhile from an information and from a community perspective.
I am a Trustee on the Behcet Syndrome Society and we have a conference call next week so I will ask if we are planning to organise a group to travel together or we can decide if a group of us want to hook up informally and travel together.
Just a quick one to ask is there is any update from your conference call? If the Society aren't planning to organise anything specifically, it would be good to start making plans.
Also, do you have the specific dates and location please?
Thank you all so much for your replies. It sounds like it would be worth visiting. I'm actually living in Ireland but I would be interested in joining up with you in Italy/meeting you at the conference for sure. So if you could keep me in the loop about it that would be absolutely great. Thanks again for your detailed reply and kind offer to join up. I've never met anyone with bechets (!) so it would be great to meet people in a similar situation to mine. Mary.
I'm glad to invite you to the next Conference of SIMBA (Italian Association of Bechet Patients) in Italy. Last time was also involved the CEO of Bechet Hospital in London a very nice person. Marco
Ooooo I'd love to go again but from Australia, it's unfortunately just too costly. I learn't so much about Behcet's and how it differed from patient to patient. I devoured the information on the medication and holistic views. I'd recommend it to all patients and there specialists if they could manage it.
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