Steroid Aid Group: archives

The following is an interim description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in future;

Papers created and accumulated by the Steroid Aid Group (SAG), 1979-2014. Includes SAG history and information leaflets, 1970s-1990s; promotional material; speeches, 1989; TV scripts, 1990; newspapers and magazine articles; medical press; correspondence with other associations and groups, 1979-2013; SAG Newsheet, 1979-1988, 1990-2014; reports on meetings, 1970s-2000s; SAG survey papers, 1990; papers relating to Babs Diplock, steroid victim campaigner, 1980s; papers relating to "Living with Steroids" stories, 2000s.

1979-2014

1 transfer box

Material accumulated by Joan Shenton, Sally Notley and Alan Miller and deposited to the library at Wellcome Collection on the 20/01/2016

The Steroid Aid Group (SAG) was a voluntary self-help group set up in 1979 to raise awareness of the side effects of corticosteriods used to treat patients suffering from a variety of medical conditions. The group supported patients prescribed the drug, most of which had experienced some form of drug injury through consuming it. During the 1960s-1980s, doctors were unaware of the many side effects of corticosteroids and patients were not informed about the health risks involved with taking them.

The origins of the group began in 1979 through the Thames TV programme Help! which gave out information about exisiting self-help groups and was presented by Joan Shenton. The programme's episode on corticosteroids was prompted by school teacher Lilian Wilding who had written to Shenton explaining the side effects she had suffered living with steriods and her story was featured in the episode. Shenton had also experienced the side effects of the drug in the early 1970s and this was a contributing factor to the content of the episode as well as the creation of SAG. The programme prompted over 300 responses from individuals suffering from a wide range of medical conditions who had experienced some form of drug injury induced from consuming prescribed corticosteroids. Consequently this confirmed the need for a self-help group and both Shenton and Wilding co-founded SAG with Shenton acting as honorary president. Sally Notely was the administrator of the group in later years and played a significant role running the group.

SAG's medical adviser was pharmacologist Dr Andrew Herxheimer. In 1988, with the help of Dr Herxheimer and Dr Ken McRae of Charing Cross Hospital, and Dr Denis Burley of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Medicine (CPM), the group conducted a survey of its 2,7000 members and sent out questionnaires of which 1,096 responded. The results of the survey are well documented in the SAG archive and were presented to a pharmaceutical conference called RAD-AR in 1990. This research highlighted the health issues of corticosteroids and the lack of advice patients were receiving on the side effects.

SAG disbanded in 2014 as fewer patients were being prescribed the drug with many forming their own self-help groups relating to their specific conditions.

The group held regular meetings three times a year which reduced to one in later years. They also produced a newsletter (Newsheet) three times a year which reduced to one edition per year in the 2000s. Content of the newsletters and informational leaflets were created in collaboration with pharmacologists.

Other members of the group included Sylvia Beamish, who succeeded Wilding as orgniser of the group; Alan Miller, Treasurer, 1980s-2014; Dr Colin McIntosh, Medical Adviser; and Shelia Myers who assisted Shenton with organising the SAG questionnaire along with Beamish.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.