Candlelighters
Because it is unusual for children and teenagers to suffer from cancer or leukaemia, instead of being treated in their local hospital, they are always referred to a regional centre for treatment. There are 22 such centres in the UK. The one for Yorkshire is based at St James’s in Leeds.
However, they are about to move across the City to the Leeds General Infirmary. The NHS budget for the move is £25 million, but this is only going to cover the basics. Candlelighters are determined that the facilities in the new unit are at least as good, if not better, than those currently available at St. James’s. A major fund raising campaign is therefore being launched.
The Candlelighters Charity was set up in 1971 by parents of children being treated in Yorkshire and the doctors who were looking after them, to support the Leeds Unit. Members of the Board of Trustees are the Consultants who look after the children and parents whose children have been treated there – people who really understand how the money can be put to the best use.
The treatment of childhood cancer is very expensive and the Unit is forced to rely quite heavily on charitable support for its work. Candlelighters help by providing funding for:
Family Support
The diagnosis of childhood cancer is very traumatic for the families. All the normal routines of family life are replaced by an endless round of hospital visits. Often one parent will have to give up work to look after the sick child, whilst the other is left trying to look after the rest of the family, earn a living whilst still supporting the carer and sick child. Sometimes families get into financial difficulties. In these cases, the social support team are able to apply to Candlelighters for a hardship grant on behalf of the family. These are not big grants, but they can make all the difference – for example we give a travel grant of 10p a mile so that the rest of the family can visit the sick child in hospital every day.
They also run support groups. There is one for siblings, one for teenagers, one for families whose children have a brain tumour and another for bereaved parents. Resident parents staying on the ward are also able to have a relaxing aromatherapy massage on the ward to help them relax and cope with the inevitable stress of the situation.
They host a huge Christmas party each year attended by everyone who has ever been treated at St James’s. Apart from being a lot of fun, it is a great morale boost as it gives patients on treatment the opportunity to meet others for whom life has returned to “normal”.
In addition, Candlelighter’s have six holiday homes on the East Coast that can be used by families during their child’s treatment. It’s very hard to arrange a holiday in the normal way because one of the side effects of treatment is that it suppresses the child’s immune system making them very vulnerable to infection. If they do pick up an infection during treatment, they need to come into hospital quickly for intravenous antibiotics otherwise the child will become very ill.
Staff and Equipment
Candlelighters buy much of the equipment used by the Unit. This varies from small items like glue, paint, paper for the play therapists, to the beds the children sleep in, the beds under the children’s beds so that one parents can stay with the child at night to the expensive medical equipment used in treatment and diagnosis. They also make a big donation towards the running costs of Eckersley House which provides “Home from Home” accommodation for families whose children are receiving treatment at St. James’s.
Candlelighters also fund extra members of staff in the Unit. This is usually done on a pump priming basis, which is to say, if they start up a new post and fund it for an agreed period of time, the NHS will then take it over. At the moment they are funding a member of the play team, a nursery nurse, two members of the social support team and a research nurse.
Research
Candlelighters also fund research into childhood cancer. There is almost no public money goes into cancer research in this country. The prognosis for children with cancer has improved dramatically in recent years. 65% of St James’s patients now go on to lead normal healthy lives, but there is still a long way to go before they find a cure for all.
In 1992 following a major fundraising drive, the Candlelighters Children’s Cancer Research Laboratory was opened at St. James’s Hospital. In addition they fund research projects into childhood and adolescent cancer and Leukaemia at both Leeds and York Universities, all of which contributes towards the fight to find a cure for this cruel disease which still claims so many young lives.
For more information on Candlelighters please clickhere.
Marie Curie
Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, Marie Curie expect to provide care to around 25,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in their hospices this year, along with support for their families.
They mainly care for people with cancer, but also care for people with other life limiting illnesses. Their services are always free of charge to patients and their families.
The charity is best known for its network of Marie Curie Nurses working in the community to provide end-of-life care for patients in their own homes.
They have 10 hospices across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and two centres for palliative care research and also run the world-renowned Marie Curie Research Institute, which investigates the causes and treatments of cancer.
Since 2004, Marie Curie Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home.
Research shows around 70 per cent of people would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, with a sizeable minority opting for hospice care.
However, more than 50 per cent of cancer deaths still occur in hospital, the place people say they would least like to be.
Their campaign – Supporting the Choice to Die at Home – has attracted widespread support from cancer patients and their families, healthcare professionals and politicians from all parties.
In 2004 they launched their first major palliative care service improvement plan, the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme, to provide greater choice for patients in end of life care.
The pilot programme, serving in Boston, Lincolnshire was evaluated by the King’s Fund in 2007. The King’s Fund report showed that Delivering Choice can double the number of people given the choice to die at home at no extra cost to the tax payer.
The charity’s Chief Executive, Thomas Hughes-Hallett sat on the advisory board that fed in to the development of the Government’s first ever End of Life Care Strategy, published in July 2008. The Strategy makes possible a doubling in funding for end of life care by 2011 and draws on lessons leant from the development of The Delivering Choice Programme, including recommending that Every Primary Care Trust has plans in place for improving the quality of end of life care.
Financially, around 70 per cent of the charity’s income comes from the generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses, with the balance of our funds coming from the NHS.
Marie Curie also depend on an army of volunteers to support their work in both care and fundraising.
The daffodil is the emblem of Marie Curie Cancer Care. Every March we run the Great Daffodil Appeal, with street collections and other fundraising events nationwide.
For more information please clickhere
