Living Without HepC

It is the morning after the launch of the ‘Out of the Shadows’ Exhibition Event in Leicester and I am trying to gather my thoughts and feelings about the day.

It was exciting to be doing something out of the ordinary - not every day is my photo portrait on public display in Leicester Square. And unusual to be showing up at the Marquee night club at 9 am on a weekday morning. Well, it would be unusual for me to be going to a night club at all. It was the venue for meeting and having coffee, and just across from the exhibition itself.

The exhibition was set up facing the Empire theatre on the north side of the square. Most of the people in the portraits had been able to come for the press photo-call. We were organised into a line, shoulder to shoulder in the same order as our portraits behind us. Then what seemed like thousand of shutter clicks kept reverberating as the phalanx of photographers took their shots. This seemed to go forever, with different photographers calling out directions to look this way or that. More shots of each of us in front of our portrait, then in small groups - with Michele the photographer or David the Beach Boy. Then we had to do the shoulder to shoulder line-up again. I don’t remember how many people (lots) were taking photos but I am sure thousands of photos were taken. I think I stood smiling non-stop for a half hour.

It was a bit reminiscent of a wedding where everyone lines up for the photos - but at top notch professional speed and with a real buzz in the air. As we stood shoulder to shoulder I experienced a great sense of solidarity with everyone in that line-up - a very empowering sense that we can make a difference on the issue of awareness about hepatitis C.

Best of all I enjoyed meeting and seeing people involved with hepatitis C in one way or another. I hadn’t met some of the others in the portraits before so it was good to talk to them - Eileen, Neil, another Neil, Gemma and David. And to see Michele, Nick and Sam again.

The latter part of the morning became a meeting point, after David was whisked away for his live studio interview with Channel 5, with loads of people mingling about. I was pleased to meet Martin (who often comments on this blog) and his wife Carol. I also spoke with a chairman of a PCT, two representatives from the pharmaceutical companies and a policy advisor from the Department of Health. Charles Gore and Jane from the Hepatitis C Trust were there. Theresa, the HepC nurse from St Mary’s, came to say hello. As did Mynurse and her colleague from my hospital.

By early afternoon I was certainly flagging but still running on adrenalin. Michele, Carol and I decided to join the young women giving out brochures on hepatitis C. Carol proved herself to be the best at this, circulating all round the square to people sitting in the mid-day sun.

So today I am wondering where all those photos will end up - haven’t yet heard any news that they have been used in the press. I know the exhibition has had some impact - over 639 people directly accessed this blog yesterday, a sizable increase over the day before.

To see more photos from yesterday please click here. All photos taken by Carol, Michele, Ashley and me.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2005 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.