A cancer support group has celebrated ongoing success since it launched its first coffee club event. 

‘Butterflies’, which launched its Coffee Club support group at the Hendover Café in Dorchester two months ago, has recently been named ‘charity of choice’ of Goulds department store for the next year and is hoping to use the funding for new projects and outings.

Butterflies has also been promised funds from another Dorset-based charity, ‘About Face’, which specialises in supporting people who have been diagnosed with cancer of the head or neck. 

Dick Foad, chairman of Butterflies, said: “We’re currently expanding both our numbers and our planned activity across the town and it seems to be paying off for us. We can only hope to continue to build on these successes for a charity that is still very young and in its early days.”

Since its first meeting in 2015 where 12 members gathered to chat, Butterflies now has 100 members. It held its AGM in November and discussed its future with promised funding for a subsidised therapies alliance and more outings.

The group meets twice a month on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, at the Quiet Space in Woodlands Crescent, Poundbury. It is now preparing to hold monthly get-togethers for survivors, friends, carers and families on the final Saturday of each month from 11am to 1pm.

Butterflies was set up after Melanie Whatley needed support once her treatment for breast cancer had finished. She worked with Rosa Adams of The Living Tree support group in Bridport.