We help around one in ten people diagnosed with cancer in Wales every year, with our Benefits Advice service, Sing with Us choirs, our nurse-led Support Line, our All-Wales Cancer Community and Counselling service, and our volunteer-led Tele-friends service. Our Policy and Insight team are also working hard – campaigning for changes which will improve the experiences and outcomes for EVERYONE affected by cancer here in Wales.
If you want to access any of our services, please call us on 0808 808 1010 or drop us an email on support@tenovuscancercare.org.uk so we can put you in touch with the right team.
Read on to find out what we have been up to lately!
Across the charity…
We are committed to being inclusive, and to help make sure that we really are here for whoever needs us we are working on ways to ensure that the services we offer and our staff and volunteer recruitment and experiences are welcoming to all. We have signed up to the Diverse Cymru Cultural Competency Scheme, and Diverse Cymru have been fantastic supporting us along this journey.
Community engagement work
We’re thrilled to have received funding to help us improve our community engagement work around Wales. Engagement for us is about making sure that people in Wales know who we are, what we do, and how to access help from us and other organisations should they, or their family and friends, ever need it.
We are very grateful to The Hodge Foundation and The Shaw Foundation for giving us the funds required to pay for two fixed term posts to get this work started. Work in the Swansea Bay health board area started in April this year. This is leading to loads of new connections with communities within the area, and we’re already seeing demand for talks from our nurses and new members at our local choir increasing. This work is now expanding to other parts of Wales with the help of volunteers and our existing networks. If you’d like to get involved, drop our Community Engagement Manager Paul an email on Paul.Rothwell@Tenovuscancercare.org.uk
Support Line
Our Support Line nurses continue to deliver invaluable support to cancer patients who are receiving systemic anti-cancer treatments like chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Patients are called at regular intervals during treatment and our nurses offer support, answer questions, and help identify any adverse side effects from their treatment.
“the people I talked to were brilliant and supportive when I was emotional. Also answered my questions which was so helpful to guide me when I talked to my care team”
Our nurses are also here to answer any questions you may have about yourself or your loved one, so if you have any questions about cancer, you can call our experienced nurses on 0808 808 1010 or use our ‘Ask The Nurse’ service.
Benefits Advice service
Did you know our Benefits Advice team hold the ‘Advice Quality Standard’? It’s an accreditation that shows that our processes and advice are top notch and means those seeking help from our team know they are working with a really good advice-giving organisation. We passed our most recent audit with flying colours and were congratulated on our work practices.
We have two new benefits advisors joining the team this summer! We are so excited to expand the team to help even more people affected by cancer to access the correct finances. If you have a cancer diagnosis and need help accessing benefits, give us a ring today on 0808 808 1010.
Mobile Support Units
We are pleased to be able to support Hywel Dda University Health Board by sending one of our Mobile Support Units down to Bronglais Hospital from September 2023 for a minimum of 15 months to create extra capacity while they refurbish their oncology unit. Our other two Mobile Support Units continue to roam the country, bringing cancer care closer to home.
Sing with Us
Want to know what it’s like to Sing with Us?
This year, we have been rolling out our ‘Sing with Us Connect’ events. So far, we've hosted one in Wrexham, Merthyr, Llanidloes, Carmarthen and Bridgend.
With these events, we wanted to make sure that our choristers, their families, and their friends know what we can offer, as well as singing, and welcomed colleagues from services and insight to come along and share what they do for people affected by cancer.
The Connect events have also been a great taster session for anyone who’s interested in joining a choir, with a short, fun learning segment that gives a snippet of what our choir sessions are like.
Coming up in the next couple of months we’ll have Connect events in Llandudno, Cardiff and Bangor! If you’d like to hear about these, follow our Facebook page here for updates.
If you’d like to join us, pop over to our website to find your nearest Sing with Us choir.
Counselling
Since launching last spring, we’ve helped hundreds of people through extremely challenging situations, through providing over 1800 hours of counselling.
