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B
eryl Whittingham took over
as the Organiser of the Local
Voluntary Support Group for
Colchester in 1999 and has
taken campaigning on as part of her role.
More recently, the issue that has really
brought Beryl out fighting has been
the complete removal of gluten-free
prescribing by North East Essex Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG).
“I only found out about the cuts
because I put in for my next prescription
and was told I would receive that and
no more,” Beryl says. “I later saw that
the CCG had put a small item in the
newspapers about meetings, so I went
“I think people
think, ‘Coeliac UK is
campaigning on this so
I don’t have to’, but we
all need to do our bit to
get the CCGs to listen.”
Campaigning for gluten-free prescribing
Sharing our cause
There are real challenges out there for people with coeliac disease
and some of our Members are rolling up their sleeves
and getting involved to help us change things for the better
along to one with my daughter and
grandson who has coeliac disease.”
Getting involved with the CCG
meeting was really important to Beryl
to make sure that people with coeliac
disease had a voice, but she found the
lack of support from others difficult: “At
the meeting there were only two nurses
and us and I thought, ‘why aren’t more
people getting involved?’”
Since then information on the CCG
meetings is included in the Group
newsletter so that Group and Committee
Members can go along and make their
voices heard. “I think people think
‘Coeliac UK is campaigning on this so I
Beryl (second from left) awareness
raising at a local supermarket
PEOPLE
