Community coffee mornings held across the region to mark World Cancer Day
Friends, neighbours, colleagues and volunteers joined together yesterday in aid of the region’s primary cancer charity – to raise awareness and encourage more conversations about cancer.
On the day that the Department of Health and Social Care launched the National Cancer Plan for England which will focus on faster diagnosis rates, improving prevention and greater quality of life for patients, members of the Lingen Davies Cancer Support community held a widescale fundraiser.
The Lingen Davies charity is currently running a £5million Sunflower Appeal to establish a Lingen Davies Cancer Centre at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. Services including outpatient clinics, urology and lung diagnostics, and chemotherapy provision will all be offered. Currently more than 37% of people being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital’s Lingen Davies Cancer Centre have a TF postcode, and will be able to access care closer to home.
Councillors across Telford & Wrekin also joined the call to hold Lingen Davies coffee mornings on World Cancer Day.
Cllr Paul Thomas hosted an open morning at The Lion in Priorslee and said generating community support for the Sunflower Appeal was critical to its success.
“Cancer is a cause very close to so many hearts, and we’re trying to make people aware about the importance of all of us raising funds for appeals like this.
“The Sunflower Appeal will help local patients by providing additional capacity and state of the art technology. It requires a lot of money to do that so we’ve got to get the community involved.”
Cllr Stephen Reynolds, Mayor of Oakengates, hosted a coffee morning at The Outpost Café in the town. He said the venue was an important community space for locals and everyone was very keen to hear about the Sunflower Appeal.
“We always support local charities at the café and are very active in the wider community. We’re delighted to be able to support the Sunflower Appeal,” he added.
Anna Williams from Lingen Davies said World Cancer Day was a fitting date to encourage members of the community to get together.
“As a charity we have large fundraising goals, and we are fully dedicated to raising £5million for the Sunflower Appeal. We also deliver life-saving cancer awareness work in the community, helping to highlight the signs and symptoms of cancer, and encouraging people to take up their screening invitations.
“We were delighted to join many of our supporters to mark World Cancer Day and share the work we are doing locally to help our patients, and those in the wider community who are impacted by cancer.”
For more information about the Sunflower Appeal and for information about making donations visit www.lingendavies.co.uk
Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, and Southwater in the Town Centre, were both illuminated in yellow to mark World Cancer Day and highlight the Sunflower Appeal.
