Centre reopens, but group keeping busy in lockdown

AFTER so many months of lockdown, the Southport & Formby Macmillan Information & Support Centre is now open for prebooked appointments and counselling sessions. But what have we been doing when the centre was closed?

Well, we’ve still been supporting people newly diagnosed with cancer – carrying out telephone Holistic Needs Assessments which identify what concerns are a priority to someone and how we can help address them, helping with Blue Badge and benefit applications, referrals to other agencies such as the NHS Responders and occupational therapy services, Macmillan grants, and of course, just being there for them and their families with a friendly voice at the end of a phone.

Not everyone we support is newly diagnosed though and at the start of lockdown we identified a list of those people who we thought might need regular contact throughout the crisis. From monthly to twice weekly calls, we’ve kept in regular contact with over 80 people and, by the middle of August, had made over 660 calls.

We chatted to people about their fears and loneliness during shielding and their apprehension about upcoming or ongoing treatments. We’ve also tried our best to support those people who are bereaved or are facing the end of life and bereavement in these very difficult times when usual support isn’t open to them.

In some cases it hasn’t been possible to even visit loved ones in hospital or have the usual support that wider family would provide.

We’ve liaised with specialist nurses, palliative care nurses, GP practices and with local organisations such as Southport Food Bank, Sefton CVS and Sefton council to ensure that people get the best support available.

Along the way there has been tears but also lots of laughter and the hope that we have made a difference by making people feel that they’re not on their own.

Looking forward to the future, our aim is to re-open the Centre offering our normal full drop in service – however, this can only be done when it’s safe to do so.

Until then, we’ll continue to offer pre-booked appointments, counselling sessions and seek every opportunity to find new ways of our support groups being able to meet up, either socially distanced or virtually!

We’re also looking at ways of reintroducing smaller walking groups from September, but again, following strict social distancing guidelines.

In previous years, our fundraising events in the spring and at Christmas, as well as The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning (WBCM) have always been so popular and well attended but have now had to be cancelled – however, we will mark the WBCM in a different way so keep checking our website and Facebook page for more details.

If you’ve been affected by cancer and would like to book an appointment, feel that counselling may be of benefit to you or you just need to talk to someone, please call Tanya on 07976 167188 or Julia on 07947 630654 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm) – alternatively, you can email us on sfccg.macmillancic@nhs.net Take care and stay safe