Earlier this year, BeeVital CEO James Fearnley was invited, as part of a small group representing apitherapy on a global level, to meet Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdogan and also the Turkish Minister for Health.
The First Lady has a special interest in apitherapy and has been responsible (with the World Health Organisation) for organising two major international conferences on complementary & traditional health systems.
The third international conference with a focus on apitherapy was planned for 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. The meeting with the First Lady was to reinstate and plan that conference for 2023.
James Fearnley, in addition to being CEO at BeeVital, is the founder of the International Propolis Research Group (IPRG) and the Global Bee Medicine Group (GBMG). He joined Dr. Ali Timucin, the President of the International Federation of Apitherapists, and Janos Kormendy-Racz, president of the Hungarian Apitherapy Association.
Janos presented the First Lady with the Dr. Beck Apitherapy Award for her contributions to the promotion of apitherapy research in Turkey. James presented the First Lady with his book – Propolis, Natural Healing from the Hive and a selection of BeeVital products.
The whole group took part in a short programme on Turkish TV looking at the importance and value of apitherapy.
Soon after James returned from Turkey, the country experienced a huge earthquake which killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and neighbouring Syria, and devastated both countries. Our thoughts are with all those still affected many months later, we hope and wish that their lives can be rebuilt.
We are looking forward to reconnecting with our many friends & colleagues from Turkey and around the world at the next International Propolis Research Group conference which is to be held in Istanbul in November this year. We anticipate a fascinating and energising few days hearing about cutting-edge research on this extraordinary substance produced by honeybees. We will be posting more information about this conference soon.