Cancer Services You Never Thought Of | Help & Advice

12 April 2021 — david-allen

Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. This is definitely the case with cancer support services.  As someone living with cancer, or as someone close to someone who is, it’s a big and important step to look for support.  And if you’re reading this, then you’ve found your way to Cancer Care Map, which is an excellent start. 

But what next?  If you know what sort of cancer care provider you are looking for, that’s great!  Just enter the charity name, cancer type or keyword(s) into our map search. You should find what you need – and if you don’t, please let us know.

So what about the type of help you didn’t know existed, but which turns out to be a total godsend? Try a search using your postcode to see what surprises come up near you.  You might find that support service you never thought of, but now can’t manage without.

Here are some of the local and national charities we’ve discovered that made us stop and think ‘what a lovely idea!’…

Anyone with a pet will appreciate this one.  Cinnamon Trust is a national charity for the elderly or terminally ill and their pets.  The charity provides long term care for pets whose owners have died or have moved to residential accommodation which will not accept pets.  With a national network of over 15,000 community service volunteers and pet foster carers, short term care is also available for pets whose owners face a spell in hospital.

Are you based in the North East and struggling to get to appointments?  Do you know about Daft as a Brush?  This is a free transport service for cancer outpatients travelling to and from hospital, and if required a member of team will stay with you while you have treatment and then bring you back home.  That’s potentially one less thing to worry about during such a stressful time.

Research shows that singing, especially with others, can reduce anxiety and depression.  So for anyone in the Wales area with cancer and feeling isolated or in need of connection, how about joining a choir?  Tenovus ‘Sing with Us’ choirs offer a different kind of support group, and a chance to relieve stress and make new friends.

Hopefully these examples have inspired you to check out the range of cancer support services available near you.  As ever, if you discover a service we don’t know about, please let us know so we can add it to the map.