We’ve all been teenagers. You may still be a teenager. You may be parents or grandparents of teenagers. We all know the pleasure and the pains of growing up into adulthood. Too many of us have seen cancer in our families and amongst our friends. We have seen the fear and emotional havoc it wreaks. Each day in the UK, 6 teenagers will find out they have cancer.These young people often get a raw deal, receiving hospital treatment in inappropriate facilities alongside children or old people.
Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) focuses on the particular needs of these teenagers and young adults with cancer, leukemia, Hodgkin's and related diseases by creating specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. It is anticipated that treatment on a Teenage Cancer Trust unit can improve chances of survival by 15%.
TCT has already designed and built seven units in the UK. Building the units costs upwards of £2 million each. The charity's target is to have at least 22 across the UK to ensure every young person has access to one.
Currently there are no specialist facilities for teenagers with cancer in the East of England. The nearest TCT units are in Birmingham and London however funds awarded to TCT from the Magical moonlight walk will be used on the proposed TCT unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, with the aim of improving the lives of young people with cancer in the region.