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The Community Cancer Centre (CCC) originally started out as ‘Bosom Friends’ in the early 1990’s. It was a set up by a group of breast cancer patients who met each month to share their experiences and to give some support to each other.
After a few years and some hard work we raised some money to create a drop-in centre in the local community to provide emotional support and information, outside of an institutional environment. We designed this with cancer patients, their families, carers and anyone else who is affected by cancer in mind and soon extended our opening times from Monday to Friday for anyone to come in as and when they needed to.
Around the same time, we renamed ourselves as the Community Cancer Centre, Drop In for Information and Support.
CCC meets the recommendations of the NHS Cancer Information Strategy (2000), the information and Support Strategy for the West London Cancer Network and follows the Macmillan guidelines.
We are also proud of our new project- MOT to reach out and raise awareness of prostate cancer.
The MOT was launched 20th February along with the launch of the Community Cancer Centre with its name change from the existing name Bosom Friends because there is a great need for much more awareness about prostate cancer in the public arena. We have also set up a men’s group the first meeting took place on the 13th February and will continue to meet each month.
It will encourage men to discuss and share their experiences amongst other who are going through similar situations in a safe and friendly environment.
Much input has gone into the posters and leaflets promoting awareness by all at the Centre, together with the man in the street, we also spoke to Mr. Pope, Consultant Urologist, from Hillingdon Hospital to ensure comprehensive and accurate information, everyone is very proud of the finished article. We feel we have hit the right note because the response so far has been very encouraging.
The ultimate aim is for every man over the age of 50 to have the opportunity of being screened for prostate cancer as a matter of course so that cases can be detected at an early stage and many more lives saved as a result. Men have always been the poor relation when it comes to screening and yet almost as many men are diagnosed every year as are women with breast cancer and the argument for false negatives is the same for both.
Everyone at the centre wants the CCC to be a place where all cancers are encompassed for both men and women thus expanding awareness in the community at large that we are here for everyone at a difficult and distressing time in their lives.
If you would like to be involved with this project please contact the centre and they will put you in touch with the co-ordinators of MOT.
Hi everyone,
My husband and I became users of the community cancer centre last summer. The reason we needed the help was desperation! My husband had been diagnosed 18 months previously and he had had successful treatment and was now in remission, for how long we didn’t know, but 8 months after finishing his treatment he felt worse than at any time during diagnosis and chemo.
The hospitals are great, they offer support and help during diagnosis and treatment (if your lucky enough to have a good team) but after you finish treatment you seem to fall into a black hole, there is nothing or no one there to offer information or support or answer your millions of questions and worries.
The medical staff say call them but you feel silly or a nuisance after all, you have finished your treatment you should be well and enjoying getting on with the rest of your life! This is after all what all that chemo trauma was for!!
However this seems far from easy or at times you think even possible.
This puts more emotional pressure on yourself and your family, and who helps, who talks to you and provides any of the answers? Its better to be able to talk to an outsider, the last thing you want to do is cause more upset to friends and family, they are your support network through out this journey and it’s hard on them too.
We personally found this the most difficult stage of the cancer journey.
We had tried the well advertised routes only to discover that a lot of the local support networks couldn’t help us as we were being treated at a hospital out of our area, because of the specialist type of cancer. Something we have discovered happens a lot all over London.
After lots of searching on the internet and through hospital information we finally discovered The Community Cancer Centre and Bren. And some of the questions had answers and life started to be lived again.
I have been mulling over what my husband said to me the other day after attending a living with cancer course that Bren had organised for him.
One of the other members had said, “what’s wrong with me, I feel worse now than I ever did during the treatment” and others joined in the discussion and a light went on, they all had different symptoms and side effects, but all had felt dreadful after finishing treatment, but no one had been able to find or speak to others for this information. Just to be able to say it and have others understand and confirm that this had happened to them too, made it better, no magic wand, just communication, people talking.
The Community Cancer Centre is what is needed along with the buddy system and the drop in centre, a resource where people don’t fall into the black hole, where all the other information, be it written brochures, organised help or people sharing their knowledge is there to be found.
Some one to talk to.
Because that is what is important, without the emotional and psychological help to remain strong and focused that is as much about staying healthy as all the other components that the medical teams offer. We were made to realise this recently when after 2 years in remission we went for a routine check up only to realise that from the time you receive that first bad news you do live with cancer waiting for the next bad news. And again no information on how people cope or information of what happens the 2nd or even 3rd time around, what does it mean? Is it more chemo? Is it terminal?
The only place you are left to turn to is the internet.
Now there are some very good sites, but is that how people should find out this information sitting in front of a screen at home isolated or is it another type of black hole where the information needs addressing correctly? This shows the huge on going need for the Community Cancer Centre and other like organisations.
There should be Community Cancer Centres everywhere; it should be part of the treatment along side the hospitals. And it should be properly funded so that people know how and where to go for help. We would like to thank the staff at the Community Cancer Centre for their help and support and hope we can offer some of the help they have given us, to others.
• did you know we are one of the charities listed on the Everyclick site?
• you search for us "Community Cancer Centre" and register your fundraising for this charity
• you can then make this your home page when you connect to the internet and…
• use it as your search engine
• we get money for every search you do!
• to see OUR page, click here
The leading lottery fundraiser in the UK. Helping to raise funds for Charities, Education, Sports organisations and other societies.
Alexandra and Sam Fidge are two very fit youngsters who raised more than £400 for us at the Community Cancer Centre by getting sponsorship to climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales – Scafell Pike (3,209ft), Ben Nevis (4,406ft) and Snowdon (3,560ft).
Alex and Sam standing in front of Mount Everest on a trip to the Himalayas in April 2008.
We have an exciting new project "It Will Change My Life"
The Community Cancer Centre are looking for male volunteers to befriend people affected by cancer
We are looking for men of all ages
You need to have an understanding of cancer and the needs of people affected by cancer
You must be willing to be trained in providing the appropriate information and support for people affected by cancer at the right time of their cancer journey
If you meet the criteria, then give us a call and we can discuss with you further this exciting new project
The CCC has been supported by Hillingdon Community Trust, they have funded much needed alterations within the centre to create more space for future training and consultations. They have also funded training for volunteers to learn new skills.
We are pleased to announce that as well as the Hillingdon Community Trust supporting CCC it has now become official that the National Lottery are funding a three year project. This will mean employing two staff one part time and one full time. This project will give the opportunity for cancer patients and their carers to gain skills and improve their confidence to live a quality of life.
You can either print it and post it to:
Rachael / Caroline
Referral Form Returns Community Cancer Centre CCC 18a Fairfield Road Yiewsley Middlesex UB7 8EX
OR
Download the form in Microsoft Word format by clicking here
Community Cancer Centre (CCC)is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and a registered charity: 1126911
Co. reg. no. 6716086. Registered office: 18a Fairfield Road, Yiewsley, Middlesex, UB7 8EX
