The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Cancer charity’s on the ball
As the Dundee-based children’s cancer charity TCCL holds its 25th anniversary ball this weekend, Michael Alexander speaks to some of those who know its ‘immeasurable worth’ from experience
Angus woman Hazel Melrose knows all too well how devastating it is to lose a child from cancer. In 2004 her eightyear-old daughter Anna lost her brave and selfless 15-month battle against a brain tumour.
When Hazel, now secretary of TCCL (Tayside and North East
Fife Children with Cancer and Leukaemia) celebrates the charity’s 25th anniversary with 270 guests at its biennial ball at the Apex Hotel, Dundee this evening, she will be reminded of her daughter’s resilience and of the invaluable support TCCL gives to dozens of local families each year.
“Anna was a just a normal healthy, lively little girl in P2 at Northmuir Primary in Kirriemuir when she started complaining about having headaches,” Hazel told The Courier.
“Then she started being very sick. She developed a tremor in her hand – she was left handed and she immediately changed to writing with her right hand. She was quite a bright wee thing.
“I was back and forward to the
doctors for about six months before they finally did something. She went for her scan and they discovered she had a brain tumour.
“She had a big nine-hour operation at Ninewells very quickly after that. After that she had radiotherapy in Edinburgh – I took her down every day for six weeks.
“But unfortunately we kind of knew early on there wasn’t a high percentage survival rate. She had another operation in December 2003.
“That’s when they discovered there was absolutely nothing more they could do for her. It was just basically a matter of time. She was in palliative care after that. She died in March 2004, aged eight.”
One of the most touching legacies left by Anna was the thousands of pounds she raised off her own back to help other young medical patients, including electric beds in the children’s ward at Ninewells.
The Melrose family received invaluable emotional and social support from TCCL, which has been serving Tayside and North East Fife since 1994.
The charity specialises in supporting families in the area who have a child
TCCL will mark its 25th anniversary by donating £25,000 to Ninewells.
under the age of 18 who has been diagnosed with either cancer or leukaemia.
Conscious that the diagnosis causes tremendous stress for families, it works with local health services to provide additional supportive care during treatment and up to three years after it is completed.
Since 2015 it has also provided free holidays for families in its recentlypurchased lodge in St Andrews.
Former Ninewells paediatric oncology nurse specialist Gaye Steel, who helped found TCCL, remembers that when she took on her nursing role there was no formal support for the families of child cancer parents.
A group was put together offering general support, and this morphed into the formal launch of the charity in 1994.
An early achievement was the £90,000 raised to create a landscaped garden outside the Ninewells children’s ward.
It widened its remit to offer psychosocial and travel support.
Travel grants were also offered to get parents to and from treatment if their child is in hospital away from home. It has also provided everything from a new washing machine to heating grants to keep children warm during winter.
Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Rosalie Wilkie spent around
28 years at Ninewells Hospital looking after children with cancer.
She has seen an average of 30 families per year benefit from TCCL in “immeasurable ways”, whether that be the provision of real-hair wigs, TVs, DVDs and iPads in children’s siderooms or emotional care.
When she retired she was delighted to become chairwoman of sister charity TCCL Lodge, which raised £600,000 between 2012 and 2015 to buy, renovate and run the TCCL Lodge in St Andrews.
Dr Wilkie is amazed many people have never heard of the charity.
At tonight’s ball, compered by the charity’s patron – STV news anchor Andrea Brymer – TCCL will mark its 25th anniversary by donating £25,000 to Ninewells. This will fund a range of improvements, including redevelopment of the MRI scanning area for children, occupational therapist art supplies for 11-18-year-olds in clinic areas and a new TV system for children’s side rooms.