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Oxford Conference - 2003

University of Oxford

(Pictures courtesy of Peter Gaston)

When plans were originally made for the Oxford International Symposium to celebrate the Association’s 30th Anniversary, it was envisaged that there would be a two day scientific meeting followed by a Patients’ Day. But the reality turned out to be much bigger than we anticipated.

We ended up with a five day event which began with a workshop hosted by the University of Oxford entitled ‘Advances in the Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics of Bone Disease’. The aim of the first meeting was to examine, discuss and review some of the recent advances made in the genetics, cell biology and biochemistry of bone fields. There were high quality speakers from all over the world who attracted an audience of over 130 scientists and clinicians with an interest in bone diseases. Hopefully the knowledge gained through this meeting will be put into clinical practice and bring us nearer to a cure for Paget’s Disease.

The second scientific meeting was the International Symposium on Paget’s Disease held to celebrate the Association’s 30th Anniversary in 2003. Once again it attracted excellent speakers both from the UK and overseas. The audience for the meeting was much larger than we anticipated with over 170 in attendance (at the previous Symposium the number of delegates was 114). The meeting covered a huge number of topics ranging from bone cell biology to clinical practice.

Following an excellent and convivial dinner and a short welcome to Oxford from Dr Peter Selby, there was another treat in store. The Ripley Morris Men exploded into action. They provided wonderful post-dinner entertainment as they cavorted (and cavorted is the only word) in the glorious evening sunshine.

Saturday morning, bright and early (well early anyway) found us scurrying around ready to register those who had stayed on Friday as well as the new arrivals for the meeting. The day began with a review of the Association’s last thirty years by Dr Roger Smith (a former NARPD Chairman). Dr David Hosking then gave us an insight into the science behind Paget’s Disease. It was an illuminating talk which presented medical and scientific information about Paget’s Disease in a form easily understandable to a lay audience. Dr Kaplan was then given an almost impossible task. We asked him to summarize the previous two scientific meetings in a format understandable to a non-scientific audience and gave him only 40 minutes to do it in! He did a magnificent job and gave a presentation of super quality to a spellbound audience.

Following a short coffee break there was an interesting talk by Anne Langston who gave us an update on the PRISM Trial and outlined the benefits to participants. Anne was followed by Dr Peter Selby who explained to the audience how patients will benefit from the development of guidelines for the management of Paget’s Disease. Ann Sutcliffe from Newcastle and Fay Lang from Australia both specialist nurses spent some time explaining the role of the specialist nurse in managing treatment for Paget’s Disease and contrasting the UK and Australian treatment models. The morning session was brought to a close by Charlene Waldman, Executive of the US Paget Foundation. Mrs Waldman highlighted the work of the Foundation in the US and contrasted it with that carried out by the Association. It was very interesting to see how two organisation with similar aims use such varied methods of working.

Lunch was immediately followed by the AGM during which Dr Selby presented the accounts to the meeting. After some discussion a vote took place on the proposed amendment to the Constitution to allow the Trustees to purchase Trustee Indemnity Insurance. This vote was unanimously in favour of the proposed amendment.

Following the AGM Dr Michael Davie from Oswestry looked at the pain relief available to Paget’s patients and also at the treatment trends. This was followed by a short talk by Marilyn McCallum, NARPD Director on the value of Support Groups to the Association, which triggered a lively audience discussion. There was then a Question and Answer session when the panel answered either written or oral questions from the audience.

The final event of the day was the draw for the Raffle. We prevailed on Dr Kaplan to make the draw and the list of prize winners can be found on page 18 of our newsletter.

International delegates chatting with
Sir Julian and Lady Diana Paget (centre)

In conclusion, we would like to thank the speakers for their hard work and wonderful presentations and also the members who made often arduous journeys to attend the event. Many of those present thought it had been the best Patient’s Day meeting they had attended which really gives us something to live up to for the next meeting.