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WMT News July '09

Hi Friends,

STOP PRESS: This year's Expedition Skills course 11-17 July (7 days of bushcraft, Land Rover driving and WMT medicine) is offering a 2 day Expedition Medic programme aimed at doctors and nurses in parallel to Far From Help for explorers! Full details. You can just come only on Expedition Medic 16-17 July too!

WMT's array of courses has never been so extensive and comprehensive in 2009 with events in Chamonix, Morocco, Scotland, Wales, England and in Ireland on the planner. And we're also going to be very busy running a range of private programmes for schools, film companies, World Challenge Expeditions, CASP, the Royal Geographical Society and private expedition teams. We're especially delighted that the Expedition Skills course with Land Rover Experience and Woodsmoke will be held this year at the fantastic 5000 acre Eastnor Castle Estate in Herefordshire - for explorers and medics. Bring it on!!

NEWS FOR 2010 - Chamonix Expedition Medicine course Revised dates - 25-29 Januar (Monday to Friday). New mid-afternoon to early evening lecture format = more ski time! New WMT hostel deal - half board about £40 per night. Early bird booking discount - doctors save £50 if booked by 1st Sept (others save £25).

WMT in Dublin! We are pressing ahead with our Far From Help Dublin course 5-6 December 2009. Full details of the course will be launched in WMT's feature survival article in the prestigous Irish magazine Outsider this summer. Watch our website for details or email us if you're interested.

WMT is pleased to announce a new tie up with premier outdoor retailer Ellis Brigham to offer 10% off online purchases to WMT delegates. Once you've booked and paid for an event we'll email you the discount code. www.ellis-brigham.com

We've created a new delegate' section at the bottom of our links page to honour and share the projects, photographs and blogs of our students.

In 2009 WMT will be running its most comprehensive range of programmes for explorers and medics ever. New initiatives include:

- a partnership with Glenmore Lodge who hosted Far From Help in April. STOP PRESS: next year's dates are 10-11 April 2010 (the course with full board at Glenmore Lodge is still only £220 in 2010).

- a return to more inclusively priced great value residential Far From Help and Advanced Medicine courses (in Buxton, May and November)

- the rollout of Jungle Medicine for medics in the UK, April after a successful pilot this year AND a new UK Mountain Medicine weekend course for medics in September

Our 2009 theme is VALUE VALUE VALUE! Due to the volume and success of our work and reduced overheads we are doing our best to pass on these savings to our students. For example, our partnerships with Nomad Travel and printers Kallkwik helps keep our material costs down and we've achieved substantial administrative savings by investing in an online credit/debit card booking form. And we don't surcharge payments made by card. NO COURSE PRICES HAVE BEEN INCREASED THIS YEAR! And many course prices are the same as two or three years ago even though our costs in Europe have risen sharply (and we pay our Morocco in-country costs in Euros too). Some prices have come down considerably; save £120 on the Jungle Medicine course and £100 on Expedition Skills from '08 prices. JUST ANNOUNCED! New early bird booking discount for Chamonix Expedition Medicine in January 2010 - see above.

Times are tough and we want to continue to make our courses accessible and to provide great value. We've always extended generous discounts to nurses and med students to attend our Chamonix courses and we're now offerering a special rate on the Jungle and Mountain Medicine UK weekends. Nurses and students pay less but get the same service from WMT. We appreciate that their earnings are not on par with doctors.

We also don't build charitable donations into our prices; why should we dictate to our students who they should give their money too? That said, as a condition of booking the Kasbah du Toubkal for our Morocco expedition, we pay a levy of 5% for a village fund. WMT pays that, not our students. For many years WMT has held a charitable raffle for Dr Dan Morris's Ol Malo Eye Project in Kenya with prizes donated by WMT faculty and The North Face. Our generous students have voluntarily contributed several thousand Euros to this inspiring cause. We don't make a big deal or sales pitch out of these activities. They are just nice to do.

New WMT Appointments

WMT is pleased to announce that Dr Harvey Pynn, James Moore and Tariq Qureshi have been appointed SENIOR INSTRUCTORS in recognition of their highly valued contribution to teaching on the full range of WMT events. In addition, to better serve the various communities that WMT works with, Harvey, James and Tariq have taken on three new important roles:

Harvey is now Head of Research and Publications to increase WMT's involvement and support of expedition medical research work and getting published. This could be in medical journals and in magazines, websites etc. geared to medics AND the non-medical expedition community. Please contact Harvey by email if you have an idea for a research project, need help or have any contacts/suggestions with editors/publishers/publications that might like to tap into WMT's experts.

James is now Head of Liaison Travel Medicine & Nursing. James will be forging links and greater co-operation between WMT and our colleagues and organisations in the travel medicine arena and in the nursing community. James has also set up an independent company offering travel health consultancy and WMT is exploring further ways we can work with James to bring our clients an even more comprehensive service. Contact James by email.

Tariq has been appointed Head of Student Liaison. Tariq graduates from medical school in Oxford in '09 and is ideally placed to be WMT's point of contact between medical students, university expeditions and student Wilderness Medical Societies to help co-ordinate and increase WMT's involvement in and support of their activities. Contact Tariq by email.

20% off The Oxford Handbook of Expedition & Wilderness Medicine

We are delighted to finally announce the long awaited publication of THE Bible of expedition medicine, The Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine. Dr Jon Dallimore, WMT's Medical Director is a co-editor and contributing author as is Barry Roberts, WMT's Commercial Director who wrote three chapters. Eleven other past and present WMT faculty also contributed in addition to a further 44 people. It is extremely comprehensive and the book's format is easy to follow and despite being 710 pages thick, it's a convenient size for a rucksack pocket to travel with. You can order this from the Royal Geographical Society who are doing a deal bundling this book with their Expedition Handbook for £38 including p&p in the UK. Visit their site order form. Or you can buy just the Handbook directly from this online order page for 20% off! The editors of this great resource can be rightly proud of their efforts.

A comprehensive guide to expedition medicine. Provides practical advice for use in remote environments, with links and references to further information. Written and edited by experienced expeditioners, and suitable for doctors, paramedics, nurses and travellers overseas.

Dr Jon Dallimore elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine

Jon's work in travel and expedition medicine has been recognised by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. In November 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine because of his work related to teaching healthcare professionals and editing the OUP Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine. Well deserved Jon! Jon's full list of post nominals is now:

MB BS (Lond) MSc (Travel Med) MRCGP MCEM DCH DRCOG Dip Mount Med (UIAA) FFTM RCPS (Glasg)!

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See you out there!

Barry Roberts & Jon Dallimore