Good morning everyone, and welcome to this, our Inaugural National Conference.

Looking at you all today takes me back to 13th July 1993 - happily not a Friday - the date on which we held the first meeting of the Working Party out of which The Pituitary Foundation grew. In the early days, the suggestion was for a support group just for Diabetes Insipidus patients but at that first meeting it was very quickly decided to broaden the objectives of the group to embrace all pituitary patients, their carers, families and friends.

The Working Party, which consisted of pituitary patients, clinicians, representatives of the relevant pharmaceutical companies and of the Society for Endocrinology, met regularly over the next 16 months with a number of people giving freely of their time and expertise - as a result of which the Pituitary Foundation was formally launched on 23 November 1994 in London, with a series of Regional Launches also being staged.

Our early funding came predominately from the pharmaceutical industry and we remain deeply indebted for this support. However, in those early days we also received an anonymous donation of £10,000 from a pituitary patient - and whoever that patient might be, they have our heart-felt thanks and I hope they will agree that we have used their money wisely - for since our launch we have:

1. Produced a range of patient information leaflets on:
   • The Pituitary gland
   • Acromegaly
   • Cushing's
   • Diabetes Insipidus
   • Kallmann's Syndrome
   • Pituitary Replacement Therapy
   • Prolactinoma
2. Increased our membership - which stood at just 225 on the day of our launch - to 4,590 - a number which is increasing at well over 100 a month.
3. Launched 22 Local Support Groups - run by patients for patients - with others in the pipeline. We plan to launch a total of 80 such groups by mid-2001 as we see a countrywide network of vibrant support groups as being at the very heart of our work. These Local Support Groups only flourish because of the marvellous work undertaken by a growing army of volunteer Area Coordinators, many of whom are here today, and I wish to pay special tribute to them all. Thank you.
4. Employed a nurse-counsellor, who offers a telephone counselling service which many of you will have used. We are able to offer this service for six hours a week but we will look to increase that as and when the demand for the service warrant us doing so.
5. Produced seven issues of Pituitary News, our quarterly newsletter. Issue 8 will be mailed in June and will carry a detailed report of today's proceedings.
6. Secured charitable status for the Foundation - in September 1996 - and held our first AGM.
7. For the first 4½ years of our existence - since that first meeting of the Working Party - the Foundation was housed within the Society for Endocrinology, here in Bristol, with the Society providing enormous and generous support. However, like a cuckoo, we grew too big for our nest and earlier this year moved into our own office. We have also been able to employ our own staff - with our Manager joining us in July last year, and we employed our first Patient Support Administrator just six weeks ago. Both posts are part-time but, as and when funding allows, the plan is for them to become full time. The team will be completed later this year when we appoint a National Coordinator, working two days a week.

Longer term we hope to be able to provide you, our members, with:

1. A leaflet on Adult Growth hormone, which is currently in production.
2. A 'fact file' targeting GPs to raise their awareness of pituitary disorders and improve their diagnostic skills - again, this is already underway.
3. A series of patient-orientated videos.
4. Leaflets on both male and female infertility.
5. A series of audio cassettes - we are aware that a sizeable minority of our membership has visual problems as a direct result of their pituitary disorder.
6. A web-site for those of you who 'surf the net'
7. A updating of our database.
8. On-going training for our volunteer Area Coordinators.
9. And, as previously mentioned, the development of many more patient support groups.

However, many of our more ambitious long-term plans will be dependent on our ability to generate quite substantial sums of money. At present, we are entirely dependent on voluntary donations and on-going support from the pharmaceutical industry.

But enough of the future - what of today - our first national conference - an exciting development for a small and still youthful organisation.

Such an event would not have been possible without enormous and generous support from a great number of people and there are 'thank yous' due to:

1. All our speakers, many of whom have travelled a long way and given up their very valuable free time to be with us today. We are indebted to you all.
2. To the many people working today behind the scenes to ensure that all goes smoothly - to the staff here at BAWA, to the Rotary Club of Bristol Aztec group who have provided a shuttle service between here and the station, to those staff of the Society for Endocrinology who have volunteered to help us today, and to our former Administrator - thank you.
3. To our sponsors - their generosity has allowed us to keep the cost of the conference at rock bottom - and also to offer our Area Co-ordinators a training day tomorrow. Thanks are due to:
   • The Clinical Endocrinology Trust
   • Eli Lilly and Company Ltd
   • Ipsen Ltd
   • Novartis Pharmaceuticals
   • Pharmacia & Upjohn Ltd
4. But perhaps the biggest vote of thanks must go to you, the delegates, who again have travelled long distances to be here - we have people from the far north of Scotland, from the Channel Islands, from both Northern Ireland and Eire and from as far afield as Texas with us today. And a particular welcome goes to those representatives of the other endocrine patient support groups who are here:
   • HYPOHH, a support group for patients with Kallmann's Syndrome;
   • ACTH, the Association for Cushing's Treatment and Help;
   • Child; and
   • Research Trust for Metabolic Disease in Children.

I hope that all of you will find today exciting, interesting and worthwhile.

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