Thursday, November 06, 2008

Email Harney photographs of your daughters

EDIT: @ 12.22pm Ray Darcy has a page on Today FM's website where you can email directly as well as providing Harney's email address to send her pics of your daughters. Minister Harney is also making a statement in the next couple of minutes which I will post when it is over.

THE GOVT's
decision to halt its proposed HPV vaccination programme was featured heavily on the radio this morning. I caught most of Harney's interview on Morning Ireland and if she listed what she is doing one more time (such as other vaccines for babies - sorry not a good point Mary this should all be provided anyway) I was going to spit . The link to her interview is available on the RTE website, here's a link to full section and here's a link to the Harney interview. Edit :@ 12.26pm the links to Morning Ireland are now up.

Then just as I was going into work I switched onto Ray Darcy and while I missed the main feature he did on the ridiculous and appalling decision not to provide our daughters with the vaccine I did hear a great idea from a listener.

Let's send Mary Harney photographs of our daughters.

Let's show her all the young girls who are being denied this vaccine that could prevent some of them getting cervical cancer in later life. This decision has nothing to do with the screening programme that should be done anyway and nothing anyone can say can make me feel any differently.

If you feel strongly about this please email Harney, here's her email minister's_office@health.irlgov.ie - I will be emailing her and I am urging all my friends with daughters to do the same. Please do it too and please ask your friends to also take part. The cost of this is nothing, nothing compared to saving someone from cervical cancer in the future.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an excellent idea! I'm going to mention it at the Feminist Open Forum discussion, if you don't mind.

Red Mum said...

I do not mind in the slightest Fiona, please do, thats a great idea. Lets spread this to as many places as possible.

Aphrodite said...

Hi missus - I put a link up on the Blather just now and we'll give it a proper mention tomorrow

Disgraceful decision, absolutely horrendous

Anonymous said...

I saw the apostophe in the email address and went to check the website to make sure it should be there.

There's something substantially wrong on the "ministers" page - I wonder can anyone else notice the slightly-obvious item that needs updating?

http://www.dohc.ie/about_us/ministers/

Red Mum said...

Thanks Aphrodite, you're a star!

@Buzz Lightyear - I thought the same myself, that image should be subject to the same rule as election pics, ie taken within a particular period of time ;)

I also thought they should update the email, hate underscores, try explaining them to people who are new to computers and an apostrophe, in an email!!!1

Anonymous said...

Red Mum, that's up now on the Feminist Open Forum, so hopefully the members will get going on it. There will be media follow-up on this too.

Anonymous said...

It might be worth pointing out, as Dr. Henrietta Campbell of the All Ireland Cancer Foundation reported to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in April last year, that all studies have found that the vaccine is cost effective. This move will kill between 50 and 70 women per year and it will cost more. This is precisely the opposite of saving money.

Anonymous said...

I heard about this when I received a bunch of emails from friends with daughters who were spreading the word. I'm sickened that our screening only began last year because "we had different priorities and we didn't have the resources" and the price of this is that we now have to just hope that we'll get a vaccination programme one day. Hmm, I wonder what those priorities were if they weren't health...or education...or the elderly...

Sharon McDaid said...

I'm saddened by this awful decision and have emailed the Minister (not letting on that I'm a Nordie). Blogged about it too.

Anonymous said...

When I saw the link email-harney-photographs-of-your.html I have to admit I thought you were asking us to email pics of something entirely different!! Glad I read the post before e-mailing, or I might have been arrested for indecency :)
Great idea and I will certainly spread the word.

Fergal Reid said...

An astonishing decision. I've blogged and linked to your post in any case. If irishblogs lights up with enough posts on the subject, the idea might get around.

PWR said...

I was the listener who proposed emailing pictures, some other ideas here:

1. There are about 2,000,000 in the workforce, mostly tax payers. E10,000,000 for the scheme. Everyone send a cheque for E5 to Dept. of Health marked Cervical Cancer fund, request a receipt. If they cannot lodge it they have to return it. Either way they have to acknowledge every cheque. Tell Dept. if they won’t take cheques we can do it by Paypal.

2. Today FM asks every motivated listener with a 10-13 year old daughter to email a picture, make a giant page on the website as a collage of the girls, with their names. Do a protest outside the department with each participant holding a picture of a girl, will she be one of the ones who could die?

PWR

cluelessjewel said...

Thanks for this blog redmum and for those ideas PWR. I have emailed Harney with pictures of my two daughters aged 5 and 1, I know it's not the age range we're looking at but soon they will be and this issue needs to be pressed now. I also sent a picture of my friend and niece who in October last year aged just 26 years old died of cervical cancer. It's an absolute disgrace that she can even stand up and try to defend her decision. I'm willing to send the €5...

Red Mum said...

@Fiona thanks for doing that, do you know I received an email with the wording from my post on it by lunchtime last Thursday, I believe I have you to thank for that :)

@ciarĂ¡n absolutely and the fact that 70 per cent of women who receive the vaccine won't have to go through any levels of pre cancer or cervical cancer itself is surely reason enough.

@Claire The different email campaigns all leading to the one thing has been brilliant.

@Sharon thanks :)

@Tina10 LOL I only saw the clipped header after you said that. Could be an idea ;) And thanks.

@Fergal Reid - people blogging about it has certainly put this topic will on the agenda which is fantastic. Thanks for helping.

@PWR - thanks for stopping by, I think your suggestion was genius and well done. This morning Harney said she believed she got 20k emails...

@Cluelessjewel - I am sorry to hear that about your friend. Thanks for taking part in the action and I hope by the time your daughters are coming up to 12 that it will be well in place then.

PWR said...

Hi,
What station/programme was she on when she said that this morning?
Bet,

PWR

Red Mum said...

@PWR - After saying she wouldn't talk to Ray D'Arcy, she agreed yesterday afternoon to be interviewed for the show this morning (on Today FM - I know you know that, just in case). So they did a pre-recorded interview which he broadcast first thing on the programme. I emailed them and asked them to put the interview up on their website.