This September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and as the UK’s leading charity supporting children and young people with cancer, CLIC Sargent is highlighting the financial impact of cancer on families.
In the UK it’s an average 60-mile round trip to hospital for children and young people to get to life-saving cancer treatment, with many travelling much further. This isn’t by choice. Many young cancer patients have to travel to specialist cancer centres around the UK to get the care they need – they can’t just go to their local hospital.
That 60-mile trip can cost families an extra £180 a month when treatment is at its most intense. This is at a time when other costs have risen and one or both parents may have given up their job or cut back their hours so they can be with their child.
It’s bad enough that families are having to deal with the devastation of their child having cancer, but many are struggling with the cost of taking their child to hospital and many are being plunged into debt. On top of the emotional and practical stresses of cancer, this isn’t right or fair.
People in the community can help support families facing cancer by getting a CLIC Sargent gold ribbon pin badge. They’re available at CLIC Sargent charity shop in Weymouth, all Morrisons stores, JD Wetherspoon pub or selected H Samuel and Ernest Jones stores, or order one online, for a suggested donation of £1.
We also have lots of fundraising opportunities and are calling on the community to sign up to Challenge60. You could run 60 miles throughout the month (two miles a day), complete a 60-mile bike ride, or even hop, we don’t mind!
We’d like to thank the community for their ongoing support. Their efforts mean CLIC Sargent can be there for the children and young people of Dorset with cancer, keeping families together by providing Home from Homes near hospitals and financial grants for support.
For more information about Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, visit: www.clicsargent.org.uk/ccam.
Liz Blunt
Fundraising Engagement Manager
South Central
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