In the news in October 2020
Endometriosis
is a miserable disease that only affects women. Many years ago, radical surgery was often only the option. We hoped that much better treatments were on the way. But the newspapers show that the situation hasn’t improved very much at all.
The Daily Telegraph published an article with a grim title:
‘It took 14 years for my GP to take my endometriosis seriously’
It’s a condition that affects one in 10 women in the UK and yet it can be astonishingly difficult to be correctly diagnosed by doctors
The Daily Telegraph interviewed Eleanor Thom in an article that seemed to show that doctors have real difficulty finding the correct diagnosis, let alone the right treatment:
‘Doctors said endometriosis was all in my head’
And Emma Barnett interviewed in The Guardian, waited even longer than Eleanor Thom for a diagnosis.
The press talked about endometriosis because the All Parliamentary Group has published its report on Endometriosis in the UK .
The full title of of the report is ‘Endometriosis in the UK – time for change‘ – we think many women would agree with that!
Endometriosis UK has an informative website here
Domestic Abuse Bill 2020
The government is working on a new draft law about domestic abuse. You will find what the government plans to do here.
Age UK is asking for the bill to include the violence suffered by the elderly. Age UK says:
“We’re calling on the Government to make sure the voices of older people are heard, their rights are protected, and their needs included in future legislation addressing domestic abuse.”
And our national Programme Action Committee (Soroptimist International Great Britain & Ireland) is calling for a new offence of non-fatal strangulation to be created. You will find more about the reasons for making this proposal here.
The ‘birthplace of feminism’
Historic England – according to The Guardian – has taken Newington Unitarian Church, Newington Green, off its 2020 Heritage at Risk Register. The building has been renovated and is no longer in danger of falling into ruin. The church was a meeting place for some famous people who sought to change the society of their time.
One of them was Mary Wollstonecraft, who moved her school for girls to Newington Green in 1784. She found support for her feminist ideas among the thinkers and activists she found in Newington and its church. Mary helped to change the attitude of society towards women. That’s why the Newington Unitarian Church is known as ‘the birthplace of feminism’.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
“I do not want them (women) to have power over men, but over themselves…it is not empire, but equality and friendship which women want”
Rastatt
On a lighter note, one of our members, Marlie Roes, is also President of the Woking Town Twinning Association. The association is a voluntary body and develops and maintains close ties with Woking’s twin towns. Marlie recently visited Rastatt, the German town that is twinned with Woking and was able to visit their beautiful Baroque church. Visit the Rastatt Facebook page to see more about the town.
Rastatt is an older city than Woking.. but some of its features are similar
Rastatt is an older town than Woking,
but some things are similar….
Which picture is the lake in Woking and which picture is the lake in Rastatt?
