Jump to content

Petition supporting honouring Professor Heather Ashton in the UK


[Ca...]

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone,

I am sure Professor Heather Ashton needs no introduction on this forum. There is a movement underway in the UK to have Professor Ashton honored by the UK government for her tireless efforts to support those negatively affected by benzodiazapine medications. A nomination and supporting letters have already been submitted.

 

For those of you that don't know, Professor Ashton is 90 years old now and has been quite ill for the past three years. It would be a great boost for her to receive an honour, which would likely be bestowed (if the nomination is successful) as part of the Queens birthday celebration in June 2019.

 

In conjunction with the efforts of the benzo community I have created a petition to support the nomination which can be found by using the url below. Please sign this petition and share it with your friends and support network as you see fit.

 

https://www.change.org/p/the-honours-and-appointment-secretariat-professor-heather-ashton-the-true-angel-of-the-north-to-be-honoured-by-the-uk-government

 

One point to note: you will need to use you name, email address and post code to sign and comment on the petition. However, there is no connection to your identity on this forum or any other online community you may participate in anonymously. There is also a check box you can tick to not have your name, email address and any comments you wish to leave, displayed on the petition web site.

 

 

Thank you for your help and support.

Caspur

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much for creating the petition and let's hope we can all do Prof Heather Ashton proud. 

 

I would be thrilled if were to be successful in ensuring she is honoured publicly for her work.

 

It would also be tremendous publicity and raise awareness of benzodiazepine withdrawal.

 

Fiona  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your support Fiona.

 

Looking at your history, I feel so bad for you. I am so sorry you have suffered so much. Good for you that you still have the strength to campaign for the prescribed drug dependence.

 

Like you I am also a victim of venlafaxine. I suffered horrendous withdrawal when I tried to stop after 6 years on the drug. I had to reinstate after 5 months of hell. Just doing that was torturous but once I got back to about 65mg all the withdrawal cleared up in less that two weeks. That was after I was polly drugged by psychiatry. I've managed to dispense with all drugs now apart from having to taper quetiapine, which I'm doing now, and the dreaded venlafaxine.

Best wishes to you for the time of year!

Caspur

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your support Fiona.

 

Looking at your history, I feel so bad for you. I am so sorry you have suffered so much. Good for you that you still have the strength to campaign for the prescribed drug dependence.

 

Like you I am also a victim of venlafaxine. I suffered horrendous withdrawal when I tried to stop after 6 years on the drug. I had to reinstate after 5 months of hell. Just doing that was torturous but once I got back to about 65mg all the withdrawal cleared up in less that two weeks. That was after I was polly drugged by psychiatry. I've managed to dispense with all drugs now apart from having to taper quetiapine, which I'm doing now, and the dreaded venlafaxine.

Best wishes to you for the time of year!

Caspur

 

Thank you so much.  I hope we can in some small way prevent unnecessary harm to others.  I am sorry you have had to suffer as well.  Venlafaxine seems to be particularly problematic.  I do hope that eventually you can become drug free. 

 

Best wishes for the festive season and I hope 2019 will be a better years.

 

Take care

 

Fiona  :smitten:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

We now have 670 signatures, please keep signing. 

 

Message from Barry Haslam who has campaigned on benzo issues for over 30 years in the UK.

 

The Cabinet Office have confirmed receipt of my submitted nomination of Heather for future Honours. There is a back log of claimants and i pointed out that Heather is in poor health, so could they push the nomination, for a quicker turn around rather than the 12 to 18 months usually quoted.

 

The Cabinet Secretary has been prompted by my letter as such and it will be considered for early perusal / decision making.

My goal would be that Heather is included in the Queen's Birthday listing in June 2019.  Fingers crossed and i will keep everyone in the loop with developments.

 

Thank you,

Barry Haslam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...