Category: Health

CHARITABLE group Cancer Support France offer English-language help and support to both people with cancer and their carers.

Their website offers information on their work as well as advice for those people who want to offer their time or raise money to help the group.

There is also a very useful page of downloadable documents providing .pdf files on subjects such as the French health system and vocabulary guides to medical words and phrases.

The documents are free to download, but I am sure they would appreciate any form of support should you find them helpful.

ALTHOUGH the spring sunshine is welcomed by many, it is not greeted as warmly by those people who suffer from hay fever.

Le Réseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique (RNSA) website is a useful stop for hay fever sufferers as there are guides and regular updates available.

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THE joys of a glass of red are often stressed by people living in France, but for some a drink or two can begin to take over their life.

There are a number of Alcoholics Anonymous groups in France that meet on a regular basis and offer support to English speaking people.

Some meetings are closed and require people to contact organisers in advance, but there are open events and entrance is free, just bring along ‘a desire to stop drinking’.

More on the help offered by the AA in France.

THE present UK government does not like expats, they obviously constitute a huge threat, they are people with the gumption to get up and go, and tries at every opportunity to discriminate against them, writes Anita Rieu-Sicart.

The majority of people who have emigrated in the past few years, and hundreds of thousands have done just that including the younger, talented ones with skills to countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA etc. have little to lose in pension benefits.

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IF there is one thing that will make your skin crawl it’s discovering a tick either on yourself or your pets.

The BBC website highlights the experiences of one man who turned to the internet to find out why he was feeling unwell, and after asking for tests it turned out he had the tick borne Lyme disease.

For people living in the French countryside for the first time, learning how to stay clear of ticks and safely unhook them from your skin is an important skill to have.

Because not only can they pass on Lyme disease, which can see people suffer flu-like symptoms for a long period of time, tick bites can lead to the death of your pets if not treated.

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A COMMENT has been left on the site asking for the experiences of those who have received treatment for osteoporosis and what medical support is available in the French system.

If people are able to pass on any advice you can either leave a message via the comment form below, or contact me directly and I will draw together the different threads.

OUR ancestors ate, drank, made merry – yet lived almost as long as we do, writes Verite Reily Collins.

Every year some went abroad to ‘take the cure’, and Edward VII was a frequent spa visitor, accompanied by Caesar, his dog. The Duke of Westminster would take his Duchess, install her at Brides-les-Bains, then rush across France to join Coco Chanel in her spa holiday at Biarritz.

French cancer survival rates are far higher than ours, so when my cancer specialist’s only suggestion to treat nasty side effects from treatment was, “do you want to come off the drug”, I decided to follow celebrities like Kylie Minogue.

Tapping into French after-care I was helped to stay on the drugs, and will hopefully live a lot longer, although sadly, in Britain, over 50 per cent come off these life-prolonging treatments because the NHS does nothing to help.

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ALTHOUGH many children when moving to France with their families take well to the language and new surroundings, the same questions still arise about growing up.

There is a telephone service that offers young people health advice and support, anonymously as well as online, through the Fil Santé Jeunes website.

The telephone service recently changed its number to 32 24, it is free from home lines as well as telephone boxes, and is available seven days a week from 8am until midnight.

Related article: A helping hand for teenage expats

IF you want to find a doctor, dentist or other health professional in France the the l’Assurance Maladie website has a search facility to help you out.

The Annuaire des Professionnels de Santé (Directory of Health Professionals) lets you select different job types such as doctor, dentist or midwife , but also places including chemists and laboratories.

You pick the profession, make sure you confirm your choice as this lets you narrow down your search a littel further if necessary, then enter your post code or town and then Rechercher.

The database then pops out the address and contact details of the doctors, dentists or other professionals near you.