The Auckland East Breast Friends Group meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7.30 pm at Highland Park Community House, Highland Park. Please contact Jennifer (09) 274 1192 or Gill (09)274 9222 for more information or call us on 0800 273 222. New members are always welcome.  

Latest news: A quilting journey

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Auckland East Breast Friends 2010

A quilting journey ...

The August guest speaker at the East Auckland Breast Friends Group meeting was Beryl, a friend of one of our members. Beryl has done many years of quilting and other handcrafts so came along to tell us  about her journey through quilting. Seventeen members attended the meeting.

Beryl grew up in the far north and because she was in a remote area where there was not a lot to do, she turned her hand to embroidery and quilting. She recalled having her mother watching over her as she stitched, always checking the reverse side of her work to see if it was neat! Others in our group had the same happen to them when they were younger too!

Once she was established as a quilter, one of Beryl's first quilts depicted her rural lifestyle, with the old country school, the house she grew up in, the farm, her calf club days, the birds and animals. Beryl showed us a range of quilts she had made. There was a seaside one complete with shells made out of material/cotton scraps - all items/birds you would find at the beach were within the design of this one. She also had ones that she had dyed the colours herself - even one with teapots and flowers quilted on it. Amazing.

Another was entitled ‘Out of Alaska’. Beryl had been given quilting material from someone who went to Alaska which she turned into a real Alaskan landscape. Alongside her quilting abilities, Beryl also turns her hand to making bags, scarves, Xmas ornaments: some Hardanger ones, cross stitch, some for hanging on a Xmas tree, exquisite angels, wall hangings and other items. A real joy to look at. You would be surprised at what can be made out of even scrap pieces of material.

But Beryl thinks the culmination of her work occurred not long ago when there was a big embroidery exhibition/competition here in Auckland. She worked for months on a New Zealand quilt, large enough for a Queen sized bed, depicting EVERYTHING New Zealand – flowers, birds, trees, people – a real work of art. She had dyed her own material for it and was surprised to receive four awards in the competition, one being the ‘top award’. To see the quilt one can understand why.

It was a great evening and all the ladies were thrilled with what they saw. Beryl even gave us some suggestions of small items we could make in our group – her knowledge is endless.

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It's Mid-Winter Dinner Time!

The Pakuranga group met at the Howick RSA for their annual Mid-Winter dinner. Sixteen ladies attended.

'Santa' handed out everyone a small 'gift' and thanked them for their attendance. 

A great evening was enjoyed by all! 

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Denise Flett visits in June
This report from East Group Coordinator Jennifer Woodroofe
Our ladies had previously asked at the beginning of the year at our planning meeting if we could have a breast care nurse to one of our meetings. So for our June meeting Denise Flett, breast care nurse, came along and gave us a very interesting talk on various aspects of breast cancer diagnosis, treatments, thermo-mammography and a lot of information about lymphoedema and the newer treatments. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed her talk and Denise gave time afterwards to answer queries from people too.

19 ladies attended (a record for us!), including Marie Goudge and Mary Forbes as representatives of the BCS Committee. We also welcomed two new members to our meeting which was great.

There was lots of talking over supper and we also were very lucky to have our group ‘Photograph Album’ brought along, for which one of our members Rhyanne takes great pride in doing. It is a fantastic album and everyone had a chance to look through and see themselves from a few years ago! Thanks Rhyanne for all your wonderful work. 

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"A really great fun night" in May
Auckland East enjoyed having a Laughter Yoga session in May which had everyone joining in on Laughter Yoga exercises. 12 ladies attended and it was a really great fun night but several admitted that they would not like to go every week! The guest speaker was presented with a small token of our appreciation. Next month we will be having Breast Care Nurse and Lymphoedema Specialist Nurse Denise Flett come along and talk to us. Please join us for what will be a very informative and helpful evening.

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Bits and pieces in April.
The East Auckland group met for their April  ‘Bits and Pieces’ meeting. There were a lot of things the co-ordinator needed to go through with the ladies so it was decided by some in the group to have this type of meeting.

14 ladies attended and several subjects were discussed:the forthcoming training for BCS coordinators; one ‘floating’ meeting later in year that needed filling (we decided to have a Podiatrist come speak to us); a couple of ladies had a few general questions for the group; we discussed what we want on our East Auckland web page; the new BCS brochures are available so everyone took at least 2 and some took 12 or so to distribute to various places; a short poem was read by one of the group (which brought lots of laughter) and then Coordinator Jennifer ‘snuck’ an idea from one of the other groups and had everyone think about what they were doing at age 21!. This brought a lot of interest and enjoyment. It was interesting to know what other cultures do to celebrate their coming of age and we all learned things about each other.

The group then enjoyed a lovely cup of tea with scones and biscuits!

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 March - Getting crafty out East ...
The East Auckland Breast Friends Group met in March for a repeat of our ever popular craft evening run by our own Rhyanne. Seventeen ladies attended with two new members who were most enthused and said they would like to come back.

Rhyanne has a ‘natural’ ability for craft and using small canvases and the very fine outside ply of a 3 ply serviette, she has shown us how to make pictures or other novelty items. Always a successful evening with lots of fun and laughs – and glue!

The next meeting for East Auckland will be on Wednesday 21 April. 

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February
The Pakuranga East group had the first 2010 meeting in February to set up the annual plan and confirm group leadership. Meeting topics were set for the next seven months and a craft evening is planned for March, facilitated by one of the group members.

Some of the ladies were attending the Relay for Life Cancer Society fund raiser so preparations were made for this event.

The group spent time playing a very short game of ‘pair matching’ which was a bit noisy and then had supper and a long chit chat about many things. At the end of the meeting, a lady attending for the first time said “I will be back! This was fun!’

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