YOUNG LIVES VS CANCER PROVIDES SUPPORT TO YOUNG PEOPLE WITH CANCER.

At Young Lives vs Cancer, we know cancer doesn’t just impact a child or young person’s health. It can affect them (and their families) mentally, stretch their finances to breaking point, put huge pressure on school, college or work, mess with their confidence, their relationships and their social life.

That’s why we exist: to help them with everything outside treatment, so young cancer patients and their families can focus on getting well and living life as fully as possible, during and after cancer.

Merryn was aged just five when she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain and spinal chord tumour after she started suffering seizures last summer.

As well as surgery, Merryn needed six months of treatment. The family had to travel from Cornwall to Bristol every other weekend, spending up to a week in hospital each time. The side effects of her treatment were brutal – at one point Merryn lost so much weight she just lay motionless

Thanks to kind donations, Young Lives vs Cancer Social Worker, Anna, was there for Merryn and her family. She arranged for Merryn’s parents and big sister to stay at our Bristol Home from Home, Sam’s House. It meant they didn’t have to travel two and a half hours from their home to hospital. And it saved them from having to face the spiralling costs of hotels and petrol, which can so often devastate families’ finances.

“Sometimes we were at Sam’s House for weeks at a time and financially it saved us. We can’t thank Young Lives vs Cancer enough for giving us that space to be close to Merryn when she was in hospital.” Stuart, Merryn’s dad