Help Coping

Maggie's provide free cancer support and information in their centres alongside NHS hospitals and online.

Find your nearest centre here Our centres | Maggie's (maggies.org)

They're open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. You don't need an appointment, just pop in.

Macmillan have advisers who are able to give conselling help and advice. You can contact Macmillan on 0808 808 0000 – this is a free number except when calling from mobiles. If you are hard of hearing  0808 808 0121 is the number for the Text Relay service.

They can offer support via the phone, email or on-line chat. The are 3 categories of support;

Free Specialist Counselling - through Bupa, Macmillan are offering up to 4 free remotely-delivered counselling sessions for people struggling emotionally because they are living with cancer. People can access support remotely within days if they qualify to use the service.

Macmillan buddies - If you need to talk, you can access a weekly call or visit from one of their trained Macmillan Buddies.

Macmillan Online Community is a free online place for people living with or who are affected by cancer to chat about the issues affecting them.

Samaritans provides confidential, round the clock support to  anyone feeling low or struggling to cope.

People contact them about all kinds of things including health worries, financial concerns, anxiety, relationship breakdown, depression and thoughts of suicide. You can contact Samaritans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by calling 08457 90 90 90 or from the Republic of Ireland call 1850 60 90 90.

You can also email for support via jo@samaritans.org. Volunteers also provide face-to-face support at our branches during set opening times. Please visit the website to find your nearest Samaritans branch here.

Scotland based charity for mental health issues. Call 0800 83 85 87 Monday to Thursday 6pm to 2am and Friday to Sunday 6pm to 6am.

Heads2gether hold online Zoom-based meetings every month on the third Wednesday at 6:30pm.  They also hold monthly meetings at the Maggie’s centre next to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Maggie’s centre next to the University Hospital in Southampton and the Community Room at Tesco Extra in Swindon.  Look at their website for more face-to-face meetings at new venues.

To see more about the way Head2gether has helped other head and neck cancer patients and cares see: https://youtu.be/c-VLpnREzVk

To sign up for the meetings, visit: https://www.heads2gether.net/virtual-meeting-registration/

Heads2gether Helpline: 0800 0234 550

Calm with Kerry

Kerry Hector is a Breathwork Coach, Yoga Teacher and Sound Therapist who has a huge love of all things health and wellness - Kerry predominantly works with private clients, including couples and families who seek to manage and improve their own wellbeing.

As Kerry says "I created Calm with Kerry having gone through my own personal experience with stress and the effects it had on my physical and emotional wellbeing - it’s incredibly important to me to bring awareness to tangible and accessible techniques that can be easily adopted into our daily routines, providing stress relief, a reduction in anxiety, better sleep and an overall improvement in physical and mental wellbeing."

For more information about how Kerry may be able to help you please contact her by phone or email:

07540 571546

calmwithkerry@gmail.com 

Resources and information about mental health and coping with anxiety and stress. See: https://www.mind.org.uk/

A web resource that provides information and support to people affected by asbestos exposure and various types of cancer including laryngeal cancer. Although this is an American charity they are keen to educate and aid UK patients with Mesothelioma.

The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. The U.K. used brown asbestos and our government permitted the use of chrysotile asbestos years after other countries outlawed it.

Asbestos use in the U.K. began in the late 1800s to insulate ships, steam engines and power plants. By the 1970s, Britain used it in construction throughout the country. U.K. researchers were publishing studies on the dangers of asbestos as early as the 1930s. But it wasn’t until 1999 that the U.K. banned all types of asbestos.
Please take a look at the pages below for more information:
Asbestosis Symptoms: https://www.asbestos.com/asbestosis/symptoms/
Mesothelioma in the UK: https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/uk/

The Willow Foundation helps seriously ill young adults to make precious memories

For more than 25 years, Willow has created Special Days, bespoke experiences and Special Treats for seriously ill young adults and their loved ones.

Taking over from where the Make-A-Wish age limit ends, we provide fun-packed family days out, quiet weekends away from it all, to a chance to meet heroes or fulfill a lifelong wish or dream. Each experience is unique and creates precious memories that last a lifetime.