HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE
EAST OF SCOTLAND FIGHT CANCER

There is never a good time to get cancer, but for a teenager or young adult the timing seems particularly cruel. Young people can get some of the most rare and aggressive forms of cancer. Their rapidly growing bodies work against them, enabling the cancer to grow faster. Every day, six young people in the UK will be told they have cancer. About one hundred and ninety young people in Scotland every year.

At Teenage Cancer Trust, we understand that teenage cancer requires specialist care. We know how damaging it is to take a young person away from their normal life their friends, their environment, their stuff- and put them in a cancer ward with small children or old people.

In fact, we know that that young people have a much better chance in their fight against cancer if they are treated by teenage cancer experts, in an environment tailored to their needs.

Our aim is to build enough units so that, by 2012, every single teenager will have access to the dedicated, specialist support they provide. We also want to continually improve our services that already exist.

We need your help to make this happen in the East of Scotland.

Our Units

We involve young people when planning our units, so you might walk into one and find a game of pool going on, someone chatting to friends on a webcam, teenagers huddled around their favorite TV programme or a group surrounding a computer game. Its's all about giving teenagers the chance to be themselves and to carry on doing the things they would normally be doing if they weren't confronted with this horrible disease. A Teenage Cancer Trust also brings teenagers with cancer together, so they can support each other and develop mechanisms to cope. Being able to talk to people going through exactly what they're going through who are the same ages as them makes a huge difference.

Alongside all of this is a medical team of teenage cancer specialists who pool knowledge to create a body of expertise thats second to none. They're backed up by our Nurse Consultants who provide clinical care, develop research, deliver professional education and ensure that standards remain as high as possible.

The kitchen and chill out area in one of our Scottish Units.

 
The lounge area in one of our Scottish Units.

 
The individual bedroom in our one of our Scottish units.

The East of Scotland Appeal

Teenage Cancer Trust currently has one unit in the East of Scotland at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh for young people aged 13 to 16.

We need to raise £1.6 million in the region to ensure that every young person has access to the specialist support provided by Teenage Cancer Trust.

This will enable Teenage Cancer Trust to fund:

A unit at the Western General Hospital which will provide care for young people between the ages of 17 and 24. We anticipate that the unit will be completed in 2011.

A unit at the new Childrens Hospital in Edinburgh for young people aged 13 to 16. Due to open in 2013, it will replace our existing unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Specialist clinical staff to provide the very best care and support for young people being treated on the unit.

A Support Network to support friends and family by providing them with a chance to meet other people who understand their situation at every stage of the cancer journey and beyond.

We really need these services in the East of Scotland you only have to look at the young patients who are being treated in our unit in the Royal Sick Childrens Hospital in Edinburgh to know what a difference these units make.

If you would like more information please visit www.teenagecancertrust.org/eastofscotlandappeal

or contact Louise Stirton,
Fundraising Executive on 07944312502
or email louise.stirton@teenagecancertrust.org