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News

Seasons Greeting from RLG (and a turkey recipe!)

Seasons Greeting from RLG (and a turkey recipe!)

On behalf of the Red Lion Group trustees, I would like to wish all of our members and followers a peaceful and joyful christmas, and most importantly – a healthy and happy 2025!

In the spirit of xmas, I would like to share with you below a turkey recipe provided by commitee member and trustee Theresa Parr.


Soused turkey recipe

Forget all the bother with brining, etc. Far too much fuss! I first started using a basic version of this recipe 40 years ago, since then been modified several times. Definitely tried and tested so you will have beautiful, moist, tender and tasty turkey every time.

  • Chestnut Stuffing
  • 2 packs of streaky bacon
  • 1 onion
  • Liver from the turkey chopped small
  • Knob of butter
  • 200g vacpacked chestnuts broken up
  • 1 Bramley apple chopped small
  • 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 1 dessert spoon chopped thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground mace or grated nutmeg
  • 1 large sausage skinned (Sainsbury’s do really good high meat content sausages, the caramelised onion ones work well)
  • Salt and pepper

Fry bacon, onion and liver for 10 mins in the butter.

Tip into bowl and mix in all the other ingredients.

Soused Turkey

Loosen the neck end of the turkey and stuff with the chestnut stuffing mixture. Secure with a skewer.

Pop an apple or onion into the main cavity. This keeps it moist.

Slather the turkey with butter, about 500g. I soften the butter in the microwave and then brush it on for a good, even covering.

Cover the turkey in back bacon. (I use lots as it comes out soft and delicious; very good on Boxing Day). Worth using tooth picks to secure as they tend to slide off all the butter!

Place a few large carrots, large tomato, a stick of celery and a halved onion in the bottom of the roasting tin. ( I chuck the celery afterwards but roast the carrots with your potatoes and pop the onions out of their skin as an accompaniments)

Place turkey on top of the veg.

Then pour in half a bottle of wine into the pan, red or white, your choice but use good quality wine as it flavours the turkey and is the base for your gravy. ( If you don’t drink wine, then you can use a good stock)

Cover with a double layer of foil but wrapped loosely to allow it to steam.

It’s cooked when the juices from the thigh run pink.

Gravy 

Remove everything from the roasting tin but leaving just a couple of tablespoons of liquid. Serve the excess liquid.

Whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour and warm through over a low heat until combined.

Gradually whisk the reserved liquid back in and whisk until slightly thickened.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

If you don’t have enough liquid then you can make it up with stock.

Many thanks to Good Housekeeping and Delia for the original recipe inspiration.

Theresa Parr
RLG Commitee member and trustee

News

Support St. Mark’s this festive Season

Support St. Mark’s this festive Season

St Mark’s Hospital Foundation is dedicated to funding groundbreaking research at St Mark’s Hospital and supporting the training and education of its medical professionals. By donating today, you’ll help St Mark’s continue its vital work; caring with guts for the thousands of individuals affected by complex bowel diseases.
And there’s more—thanks to the generosity of our matched funders, your donation could be doubled, making an even greater impact!

To read more about the work of the St Mark’s Foundation and to donate, click on the button below.

Donate here to support St. Mark’s, who have been Caring with Guts since 1835

Events

Blockages & High Output Webinar

Blockages & High Output Webinar

Join the TWINS Christmas & New Year Party!

Whether you have a stoma or an internal (J) pouch, join “the twins” for an evening packed with essential tips and tricks to ensure you enjoy the holidays worry-free!

Learn how to prevent stoma and ipouch blockages and manage high output effectively.

This event takes place on Monday 16th December at 7:30 pm. (GMT) on Microsoft® Teams.

Prior registration is required. For further infomation and to register, click on the button below.

Register
News

You may qualify for financial support from the Kingston…

You may qualify for financial support from the Kingston Trust

If you have a stoma or an ileo-anal pouch, are over sixteen years of age and are experiencing financial hardship – you may qualify for a grant from the Kinsgton Trust.

Available to residents of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland.

For further details visit the Kingston trust website here. Or contact the Kingston trust secretary by email secretary@kingstontrust.org.uk or phone 01256 353320.

Download an information poster below.

Kingston Trust Poster
Kingston Trust Poster
Download Now!253 Downloads
News

From the archives – The ROAR! guide to the top ten…

From the archives – The ROAR! guide to the top ten barrier creams for J pouch

In this our 30th anniversary year of the Red Lion Group, we continue our journey back in time to early versions of our ROAR! magazine. In this article, we go back to issue #53 published Summer 2017 which contained this article on the subject of Recommended barrier creams for people with a J Pouch.

Names have been anonymised for publication on our website.


The Roar! Guide to the top 10 Barrier creams for J Pouch – by Roar! editor, Christopher Browne.

Anal soreness and irritation are two of the most unpleasant after-effects of a J pouch op. So here is our user-friendly guide to the top 10 products to help you banish those bedtime blues!

How many of you have suffered from soreness, irritation and rashes? Quite a few I should think from the number of times these daily discomforts are mentioned at the Information Day workshops. They can affect both men and women. But what products can we use to help clear them up and where can we buy them?

Here is our top ten guide to the most highly rated creams and lotions based on your own experiences and some authentic medical evidence.

We’ll start with Calmoseptine ointment which Red Lion member  Tracey S says she depends on and refers to as “a bit like a very thick calamine lotion and a product that I have found both very gentle and effective”.

Visit the US-based website https://calmoseptineointment.com for more information.

{Note from GB – this product is not officially distributed in the UK but can be found online, on eBay or Amazon, for example}

Adds Tracey: “The other cream I use when my skin is at its most sore is Ilex Skin Protectant. It really does the job in terms of protection…It’s very gluey and can stick your bottom together a bit but the instructions suggest you use a top layer of Vaseline to avoid this, and it really does the trick!” 

For more information see  https://www.ilexhealthproducts.com

One of the most highly recommended creams at the female workshop at this year’s Information Day was Sudocrem, a nappy rash treatment which you can buy over the counter at most supermarkets and chemists. For further information see https://www.sudocrem.co.uk

Equally effective, Red Lion members agree, is the award-winning Cavilon barrier cream. You can buy this product on prescription as a pump spray or cream – though the latter is easier to apply apparently. 

To find out more, see https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/Cavilon-Durable-Barrier-Cream/

The brand name Clinell covers a group of hand and skin care products which their manufacturer Gama Healthcare describes as “antimicrobial disinfectants”.

The Clinell spray or wipes are used for anal soreness and rashes and can be ordered from https://gamahealthcare.com/range/universal-range/ .

While Vaseline, which many of us use as back-up to other products or as a regular ointment can be bought over the counter at all main UK chemists.

Hydromol is another ointment that is recommended by several of you. It helps treat dry skin and eczma-related conditions and can be bought on prescription or ordered from https://hydromol.co.uk/products/hydromol-ointment/

St Mark’s Hospital recommends sufferers try small doses of Metanium. This ointment is usually used to treat nappy rash but can be used by adults as well. It is sold by all the main UK chemists.

An oft-mentioned lubricating gel for catheter users – both male and female – which eases catheter insertion and helps guard against infection is Instillagel or lidocaine.

{Note from GB – Instillagel and Lidocaine have anaesthetic properties and are available on prescription. An alternative over the counter product recommended for catheter users is KY Jelly}

Our former Red Lion membership secretary, Susan Burrows, {who sadly, has since passed away}, said “At the Information Day workshops most people agree that certain drinks and food can increase anal irritation and there is some consensus that the condition does improve as the skin in that area adapts. Everyone – both male and female – finds using creams and lotions an excellent way to relieve irritation – and if you are lucky enough to have a bidet that can really help application too.”

A leaflet on skincare from St Mark’s Hospital advises: “If you are leaking pouch contents onto your skin, there is a possibility that you will become sore. This is more so than with ordinary stool as pouch contents contains digestive enzymes and can be quite corrosive. The best way to prevent soreness is by cleaning as soon as you can, and meticulous attention to removing all trace of stool. There are also many different creams that can help with sore skin or used as a barrier. The success of different creams seems to be very individual – it is worth experimenting to find the best one for your skin.   It may be worth contacting your GP or stoma nurse for advice on available products.”

So, dear readers, if you know of any other creams, ointments, lotions or sprays that are recommended by healthcare professionals and have worked for you, please contact Gary Bronziet at  membership@pouchsupport.org

Christopher Browne
ROAR! Editor

Member Feedback

Stephen Woods commented “I find Bepanthen is very good. Not the cheapest, but readily available and tube lasts ages as you really only need a thin smear. Quickly soothes even very irritated skin“

To read the original article and the rest of issue #53 of ROAR! you can download the entire issue below.


ROAR – Issue 53: Summer 2017
ROAR – Issue 53: Summer 2017
Download Now!2098 Downloads

ROAR! is the magazine of the Red Lion Group that is published twice yearly. If you are a member of the Red Lion Group, you will have online access to ALL issues of ROAR! going back to issue #1 which was published in 1994. If you would like to find out about membership of the Red Lion Group please go to pouchsupport.org/join/


Events

Our next webcast – Dietary and medication Q&A for…

Our next webcast – “Dietary and medication Q&A for J pouch patients“” – featuring Uchu Meade and Gabriela Poufou

Updated 2nd December 2024

The promised follow-up session to this Q&A will now be taking place in 2025. We will let you know as soon as we have a confirmed date or keep an eye on our events calendar at pouchsupport.org/events/

Updated 29th July 2024

This webcast took place as advertised on 24th July and was greatly enjoyed by the attendees. The recording of this session is now available. Many subjects of great interest to pouchees were discussed in detail as shown below.

TIMESUBJECT
0.00:00Introduction
0.03:23Vitamin B12 Deficiency
0.33:24 Passing undigested food
0.36:33Psyllium Husk
0.42:52 Gas/bloating
0.56:46  Hydration/St. Mark’s eMix
1.13:34 Monitoring Sodium levels
1.15:10Taking vitamin Supplements
1.22:49Strictures/ Blockages (to be continued…)
Video timings

In fact, we ran out of time to cover all the questions that had been submitted, and we are delighted to announce that Uchu and Gabriela have volunteered to participate in another session to cover the remaining questions (and any new ones that might be added!)

We will let you know the date as soon as possible. In the meantime, enjoy the recording of Part 1, which you can find on our Youtube channel here.

After watching this recording, it would be much appreciated if you could submit your feedback at https://forms.office.com/e/a4A1nVT44V.  Survey results will support Uchu and Gabriela’s personal professional development and interaction with patient groups such as pouchees is a very important part of their professional  evaluation.


Our next webcast will be taking place on Wednesday 24th July at 7:30 pm (BST) and will feature Uchu Meade, Consultant Pharmacist, and Gabriela Poufou, Advanced Specialist Inflammatory Bowel Disease Dietitian – both at St. Mark’s Hospital.

Both have previously presented at Red Lion Group Information days and zoom webcasts and you can find recordings on our YouTube channel (see below). For the first time, we will be featuring the two of them together and the format of the whole session will be in the form of an interactive Question & Answer, on two of the most interesting subjects for people with an internal pouch (J Pouch or similar) and that is on the topics of DIETARY and MEDICATION advice for J pouch patients.

In April 2023, Uchu Meade achieved a significant milestone in her career by becoming the first consultant level pharmacist at St Mark’s Hospital. She has presented for RLG previously on the subject “Pharmacy advice for Pouch Patients“. You can find view the recording here.

Also taking part will be Gabriela Poufou. Gabriela is an Advanced Specialist Inflammatory Bowel Disease Dietitian at St. Mark’s. Her webcast “Healthy eating for Patients with a J Pouch” is one of the most viewed recordings on our YouTube channel. You can see it here.

You will be able to put your questions during the session but we would like to encourage you to submit questions in advance. Please submit questions to info@pouchsupport.org so that we can make sure the most popular questions/challenges are addressed.

(The session will be recorded and published on our YouTube channel – but privacy of participants will be maintained).

Attendance is FREE and open to all, but prior registration is required. You can register using button below.

Register


and don’t forget to checkout pouchsupport.org/events for details of other upcoming Red Lion Group online events.


You can view the recording of the recent webcast featuring Uchu Meade and Gabriela Poufou on the subject “Pharmacy and Dietary advice – Q&A” on our YouTube channel here


You can view the recording of the recent webcast featuring Janindra Warusavitarne and Ben Barbanel on the subject “Surgeon/Patient – a special relationship” on our YouTube channel here

Events

St. Mark’s Hospital relocation to Central Middlesex is complete

St Mark’s completes a ‘remarkable journey’ marked by unveiling of plaque by Sir Tom Troubridge          

By Christopher Browne – Roar! Editor

It’s official! St Mark’s at London’s Central Middlesex Hospital is finally open for business.

Actually, it’s been open for business and operating as the new St Mark’s (sharing duties and departments with the ‘old’ St Mark’s at Northwick Park, Harrow) for almost three years.

However, last week all the key figures behind the move held a buoyant, good-humoured opening ceremony at this clean, clinical ultra-modern hospital site in central London’s Park Royal.

The new St Mark’s consultants, surgeons, research specialists, doctors, nurses, support staff, former patients and support groups mingled with distinguished St Mark’s consultants from the past and several guests headed by the local MP Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent East, and the Labour peer Baroness Pilkeithley.

In her introduction, Pippa Nightingale, CEO of the London North West University Healthcare Trust, praised the activities of the Red Lion Group, comments that were greeted with a flurry of applause from the audience. Then several speakers reviewed the hospital’s achievements of the past three years, which Sir Tom Troubridge, Chairman of the St Mark’s Hospital Foundation, referred to as a “remarkable journey”.
(See below for full details of Speakers)

Suddenly the mood changed when we were invited to lunch. Most of us have our own take on hospital food, but this time it was different – a lavish spread that would do credit to anything from M&S (perhaps some of it came from there!).

The good humour was spreading and the by-now cheerful throng was divided into groups for a series of guided tours of the hospital’s new departments, some of its streamlined, recently-installed equipment – and many admiring glances at the building’s radical design features.

Finally, we all assembled in the main atrium where a commemorative plaque was unveiled by Sir Tom Troubridge.

See Pictures from event below.

  • Plaque Group
  • Plaque Group
  • John Nichols & James Thomson
  • Plaque Group
  • Jason Bacon & Sir Tom Troubridge
  • Pippa Nightingale & Dawn Butler
  • James Thomson & John Nicholls
  • Simon Gabe, Dawn Butler – intestinal rehabilitation
  • Siwan Thomas Gibson
  • John Nicholls & Robin Kennedy
  • Sir Tom Troubridge
  • Gary Bronziet, Chris Browne & David Davies (Red Lion Group)
  • The St. Mark’s Plaque

Speakers in details :-

  • How and why St Mark’s Hospital Moved
    Professor Omar Faiz – Medical Co-Director St Mark’s Hospital
  • What has been Achieved in the last three years?
    Miss Carolynne Vaizey – Medical Co-Director St Mark’s Hospital
  • What does the future hold?
    Professor Siwan Thomas Gibson – Incoming Medical Director, St Mark’s Hospital & Mr Ian Jenkins – Incoming Deputy Medical Director, St Mark’s Hospital
  • A Remarkable journey
    Sir Tom Troubridge, Chairman of the St Mark’s Hospital Foundation.

Related posts

  • RLG donates £5,000 towards pouch-related research
    Date
    November 16, 2021
  • St. Mark’s hospital clinical services at Northwick Park, Central Middlesex and beyond
    Date
    June 29, 2021
  • IBD Patient Day (Celebrating World IBD Day) at St. Mark’s
    Date
    April 15, 2023
News

From the archives -How pregnancy and childbirth affected my…

From the archives – How pregnancy and childbirth affected my j pouch

In this our 30th anniversary year of the Red Lion Group, we continue to our journey back in time to early versions of our ROAR! magazine. In this article, we go back to issue #3 published Summer 1996 which contained this article on the subject of Pregnancy and childbirth with a J pouch.

Here is an excerpt from the article that featured in that issue.


From Rome to Raphael – How pregnancy and childbirth affected Rachel Abedi’s pouch

Knowing that many pouch owners have trouble conceiving, I feel almost guilty that my baby began more by chance than design, his existence more the result of a romantic weekend in Rome than of concerted effort.

However, once I discovered that I was pregnant, all sorts of questions began to worry me: would my pouch, created three years ago, be squashed by the growing baby? Would my absence of colon limit the baby’s nourishment? Might the pouch be damaged during childbirth? If I opted for a caesarean section, would the incision hit adhesions, and the wound heal properly given my already extensive scarring?

These worries might sound silly now, but they were pretty real to me at the time, so I decided to see a private specialist obstetrician for ante-natal care. My anxiety about being treated as a ‘normal’ mother-to-be on the NHS was heightened when I attended an ante-natal clinic at my local hospital. At each visit, I was seen by a different junior doctor, none of whom seemed to know about pouches, let alone any pouch problems associated with pregnancy.

In the end, the cost of private care was too high, and actually proved unnecessary. I asked to be put on the books of a consultant obstetrician at the local hospital, who reassured me with his knowledge of my situation, helped by an informative letter from my pouch surgeon.

The hospital consultant explained that one risk of having a caesarean was that an adhesion might accidentally be cut (the pouch itself is too far behind to be in the way), perhaps making swift additional surgery necessary to fix my digestive plumbing. However, an advantage of being at a large NHS hospital was that surgeons would be on standby in case that happened. I still preferred this option to the risk of rupturing an adhesion during labour.

Pregnancy had no effect whatsoever on my pouch, certainly in the early months. The baby settled to the left of my central scar, perhaps because adhesions to the right (where the stoma had once been) left him too little space to manoeuvre. This meant that my belly looked a little odd, and the scars didn’t stretch as much as the skin, but it felt fine.

I had to go to the loo (pouch) a little more frequently during the last month or so of pregnancy, but the consolation was that I did not suffer from constipation, which is otherwise common during pregnancy. My diet remained the same, with the addition of multi-vitamins and more fluid, and I put on weight as normal.

I must admit to feeling great relief when my pouch surgeon recommended an elective caesarean, although I could have opted for natural childbirth had I really wanted to. Somehow I felt unperturbed by the prospect of an operation – I was after all an old hand at abdominal surgery. But the rumoured agonies of natural childbirth were utterly horrifying to the uninitiated. Stitches in my tummy I can cope with, but there – no thank you! Better the devil you know…

I was fully conscious during the birth, although numbed from the diaphragm downwards by an epidural. Giddy with hope and anticipation, I giggled all the way through the operation, and was able to welcome Raphael as soon as he made his grand, if undignified, exit (or should I say entrance?). The epidural also meant that I did not have to recover from a general anaesthetic, which was a blessing.

I then spent five days in hospital, standard for post-caesarean recovery, during which I learned the basics of baby care under the much appreciated supervision of the nursing staff.

A close eye was kept on the wound, and the transition from drip to fluids to solid food was made slowly, because this had been problematic after pouch surgery.

The point where the caesarean scar crossed the long central scar took a little longer to heal than elsewhere, but six months on is almost invisible. Because of the scar tissue, I may only be able to have one, or at most two more caesareans, but a hat-trick will be quite sufficient

My life now is unrecognisable from my ‘pre-Raphaelite’ period, but the pouch has remained efficient and trouble-free. Obviously, women must make their own decisions about pregnancy and childbirth, guided by medical expertise, but I hope that my experience will help to reassure and encourage. My journey from Rome to Raphael was not a difficult one, and now I am thoroughly enjoying the fruit of my (lack of) labour.

To read the original article and the rest of issue #3 of ROAR! you can download the entire issue below.


ROAR – Issue 3: Summer 1996
ROAR – Issue 3: Summer 1996
Download Now!859 Downloads


This year we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Red Lion Group and we would like to express our gratitude to the founders of the group which continues to flourish. Tim Rogers only recently stood down from the committee and I am delighted to say that Prof. John Nicholls is still a patron.

ROAR! is the magazine of the Red Lion Group that is published twice s a year. If you are a member of the Red Lion Group, you will have online access to ALL issues of ROAR! going back to issue #1 which was published in 1994. If you would like to find out about membership of the Red Lion Group please go to pouchsupport.org/join/

Related Posts

They came they saw, and heard all about living with a j-Pouch

14 May 2019

HLA-B27 – The genetic link connecting UC and other autoimmune conditions?

25 September 2020

The Internal Pouch – it started with this historic paper in 1978

8 April 2019


News

AGM 2024 Report

AGM 2024 Report

The Annual General Meeting of the Red Lion Group took place on 25 June 2024. The minutes of the meeting and the Chairmans report can be downloaded below, as well as a copy of the proposed CIO constitution which was ratified at the meeting.

AGM 2024 minutes
AGM 2024 minutes
Download Now!280 Downloads

AGM Report 2024
AGM Report 2024

Chairmans AGM Report 2024

Download Now!429 Downloads

Proposed CIO Constitution 2024
Proposed CIO Constitution 2024
Download Now!389 Downloads

Any questions on the contents should be submitted to the Chairman at info@pouchsupport.org

David Davies
RLG Chair

Events

Our next webcast – featuring Janindra Warusavitarne and Ben…

Our next webcast – “Surgeon / Patient a special relationship” – featuring Janindra Warusavitarne and Ben Barbanel

Our next webcast will be taking place on Wednesday 10th July 2024 at 7:30 pm (BST) and will feature Janindra Warusavitarne, the renowned St. Mark’s colorectal surgeon. Janindra is one of our most popular speakers and many of you will know him personally, or may have seen him on a previous webcast – speaking about advances in pouch surgery. On this occasion, the focus will be on the importance of the surgeon/patient relationship.

Also taking part will be Ben Barbanel, a Red Lion Group member, who was fortunate to have had his pouch constructed by Janindra about 5 years ago. Ben was honoured to have been invited to speak at the annual conference of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESC) in September 2023 on the subject “What do the public expect from surgeons”?

Janindra commented “The concept of shared decision making is vital to ensure that in these challenging times we as clinicians hear what patients have to say and how the services we provide can ensure that their quality of life is also improved, particularly in the context of chronic diseases“

We expect this to be a very popular and fascinating webcast with plenty of time for the attendees to put their own questions to both Janindra and Ben.

Attendance is FREE and open to all, but prior registration is required. You can register using button below.

Register


and don’t forget to checkout pouchsupport.org/events for details of other upcoming Red Lion Group online events.


You can view the recording of the webcast by Ellie Bradshaw on the subject “Biofeedback management of Pouches” on our Youtube channel here

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RSS News from St. Mark’s Foundation

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  • April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month
  • Thank you for caring with guts!
  • Caring with Guts since 1835
  • November Updates from SMHF

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