Macmillan Cancer Support A happy 10th anniversary to us
AFTER almost a month of being back in the Centre the memory of Christmas festivities are well and truly in the past and we’re looking forward to hopefully getting fully back on track this year ... Covid permitting!
So, having opened in January 2012, the Centre is now officially 10 years old! Throughout this year we’re hoping to be able to celebrate on more than one occasion (again, covid permitting) but just to give you a little flavour of our first year: Our first manager was Sue Summerfield, who now runs the Bolton Macmillan Centre, and the first Information and Support Officer was Sarah Taylor, who now works directly for Macmillan and supports Macmillan Professionals across the NW region.
During our first year, the Centre had over 860 contacts, gave out over 6,000 leaflets and was able to secure over £3,000 in grants for service users.
Our walking group was formed and is still going strong today! Our partnership with Boots on Chapel Street started when we welcomed around 30 ladies to come along for mini-makeovers, and Julia one of our team was one of them! Read More Read more from Macmillan Cancer Support Some of the people we supported back in 2012 are still very much part of our Macmillan family, some have ongoing treatment, others sometimes need to talk - and others have gone on to volunteer for us or to pick their lives back up and forge ahead.
As we mentioned in our January article, we have new staff joining our team. We will be working closely with the Southport and Formby GP Practices throughout 2022 to put a referral pathway in place so that everyone is offered a referral directly into our service following a new cancer diagnosis.
We will then make contact to explain the support that we can offer. We can offer practical support in terms of benefits advice, help completing forms, support obtaining a blue badge and onward referrals for example to Occupational Therapy, Social Services, dietitians and support for carers to name but a few.
We also offer emotional support and we have an in-house counselling service.
Being diagnosed with cancer is often a life changing experience and the opportunity to just talk to someone about their fears for the future and what treatments may lay ahead and how they will cope with them.
Although we’re not counsellors, we’re trained to listen and how to respond to people and, equally as importantly, we empathise and understand their fears and concerns.
We will also continue to support existing service user and anyone affected by cancer.
Next month we’d like to include a couple of stories about the help and the support that we’ve been able to offer so if you’d like to contribute, please don’t hesitate to contact us at the Centre.
At the time of writing, we’re still only able to offer face-to-face meetings by appointment only and on provision of a negative lateral flow test taken on the day of visit. But we’re constantly reviewing the situation and will open up fully again as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Telephone support is still available and please be assured that we haven’t found anything that we can do over the phone (other than a hug which we sadly wouldn’t be able to do if you were here in the Centre anyway).
So, if you or anyone you know is affected by cancer and needs to talk, please give us a call on 01704 533 024 or email sfccg.macmillancic@nhs.net