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#efpPatient Patient Summit Europe
The eyeforpharma Patient Summit in London, October 2018, was a fantastic experience, even the nervous moments were easily softened by those that were around me that knew of my anxieties, especially the Project Director Anza Asahara alongside eyeforpharma company Chairman Paul Simms.
Paul is great at helping to allay nerves by the way! A fantastic new friend made in the process too, naturally, a couple of days learning from another, and more experienced, CEO is always a fabulous bonus as well.
eyeforpharma really do adhere to their Patient Policy and go above and beyond to cater for our needs to the best of their abilities. Being a wheelchair user I would normally have many issues but the conference set up was not as much of an obstacle course as one usually finds at events.
My anxieties were lessened a lot by the way the team co-ordinated the event and I never had a camera in my face filming me. I know that I must get over this and hopefully by March, and Barcelona, I can do that, as in sit and not be bothered about being filmed. One step at a time and this time around it was photographs that I have had to get used to, which I also really don’t like.
I am smiling in them because the event really did prove to me that I am valued by a broad range of folks from across the medical healthcare industries, not just pharma and fellow patient advocates / activists like myself. You don’t hear it in the recorded audio, but I did in fact get cheered when stating I represented patient voice, something that Paul and his team have provided me with the opportunity to do.
It is difficult to understand how I could be up on stage at a pharma conference when I have only been observing, and including it in FibroFlutters portfolio for the last 12 months, or so! How can it be possible for such a ‘novice’ to attain such notoriety so quickly, and then how do I absorb that! Well it’s not easy when you find processing such emotions very difficult.
There is so much work left to do to attain that ‘win-win’ scenario that we’re all aiming for, but I am certain that the industry is now following the right trails to acheive Patient-Centric ‘lifestyles’, as companies, in order to create better patient engagement pathways to better pharma-patient relationships!
Companies are listening, London proved that, however, there are still serious issues to iron out with the main one being how to regain patient trust as they just believe that pharma are only after their money!
A HUGE THANKYOU to eyeforpharma for letting myself and my colleague and friend Sonia take part in their Annual 16th Patient Summit in London 16th-17th October 2018.
Carole Scrafton ~ CEO & Co-Founder FibroFlutters
Thankyou again, to eyeforpharma’s Chairman, Paul Simms, for inviting me to participate in the panel discussion event and for having such faith in me and what I do.
Giving me a voice is one thing but to discover that people find me to be such an ‘inspirational’ voice, yet again took me by surprise, like it did in Barcelona. I am clearly a bit ‘slow on the uptake’ regarding the effect my #patientvoice, and opinions in general, have within the chronic communities and platforms.
Adding pharma to the list is something a bit mind-blowing to be honest, and to be revered in such a way is still something I’m learning to cope with, as Paul and the eyeforpharma team all know! LOL 😂🤣😂
I’m pleased that I attended and that Paul felt proud of me, and happy in his choice to pick me to join in the event. Cannot thank Paul, Anza, and the whole eyeforpharma team enough for that!
Thankyou Paul for your lovely compliments after the panel and for helping to calm my nerves, and Thankyou Anza for all of the support you provided for me, and Sonia, during the conference and it’s planning.
FibroFutters says thanks
Can’t wait for the next time…
17th Annual
EYEFORPHARMA BARCELONA EXHIBITION & AWARDS
MARCH 12-14, 2019 | Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona (CCIB)
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