Campaigner John Snell talks about his experience at the
Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton.
It was June when I got an email from Prostate Cancer UK HQ,
asking for volunteers to attend the Party Political Conferences. I
put my name forward although I didn’t expect to be used. Imagine my
thrill when I was told that I had been selected to go to Brighton
for the Lib Dem conference in September. I felt really honoured to
represent the charity at such an important event and I did as much
reading as I could on the challenges ahead.
I left home mid morning on Sunday 23 September, with my wife
Sharyn who very kindly offered to act as chauffeur for the trip.
The weather was awful with high winds and plenty of rain. Sadly it
didn’t change for the whole stay in Brighton. On arrival my first
job was to touch base with Alexis and Bryan from the charity at the
hotel. We met around 5pm and made our plans as to which MPs we were
going to meet. Having done that, we decided to enter for the Crazy
Health Quiz taking place in a local pub. We made our way there,
battered by the strong winds and rain. There were about ten teams
entering and by some act of God we won with 35 scored out of 39. I
have to say this was totally down to the knowledge of my
colleagues, but I was quite happy to acknowledge the praise
showered upon us! As we knew one of the teams was a team of
surgeons we were rightly very pleased. What a good start I
thought!
Monday was spent meeting with MPs from different areas of the
country to enlist their help and support with the ‘Quality
Checklist’. The checklist sets out the quality of care and support
men with prostate cancer should expect to receive, based on
research with people affected by prostate cancer and healthcare
professionals. It’s needed because surveys show that men’s
experience of care varies across the country. I didn’t know what to
expect, but contrary to popular belief, they were lovely guys,
answered our questions, and pledged their support. The MP meetings
were interspersed with interesting fringe events which were either
interviews or debates. Top subject appeared to be the NHS which, as
we know, is about to go through huge changes.
Alexis and Bryan had heard that Nick Clegg was ‘doing the
rounds’ and visiting various stands. Royal Mail had sponsored our
charity for 2012 and what a great help they were too, as they
invited us to use their stand as a base. Now comes the really
interesting part! I was asked to meet Mr Clegg, give him a new
badge and discuss ‘Movember’. When he finally arrived he was in the
centre of a huge entourage of people including the usual fighting
photographers. When I saw the crowd I realised my chances of
meeting him were remote, bordering on impossible. Miraculously when
he came round the corner of the stand I found myself two yards in
front of him with no one in between. I stepped into the space,
shook his hand, gave him a badge and had a chat with him. He
offered to be photographed with me in front of the Prostate Cancer
UK banner.
What a wonderful experience, one that I would not have missed
for the world!