CCC Monthly Recap - November '22

Hosted by Radio City’s Leanne Campbell- Power, the event kicked off with a welcome from Mayor of Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson who shared her own experience of breast cancer and the care provided at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. Guests then enjoyed lunch before hearing from an inspirational panel of women about the fantastic work of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre followed by a glittering fashion show sponsored by John Lewis & Partners.

Leanne kept guests entertained with prizes up for grabs from John Lewis along with a stunning necklace donated by Wongs Jewellers, before speaking to Cody Gapare, founder of C-Lash, along with Liz Morgan, Claire Bennett and Jessica Hale from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre

Katrina Bury, Head of Clatterbridge Cancer Charity, said; “It was fantastic to see the return of Amazing Women Against Cancer after three years away. There was a fabulous atmosphere in the room!

“The total raised will mean so much to local people with cancer and their families. Thank you to all of the Amazing Women who took to the stage and the runway for Clatterbridge today, to everyone who attended and to John Lewis and Wongs for making the day possible.”

We started preparing for Christmas at Clatterbridge!

Chief Executive Liz Bishop was joined by the incredible Lauren Upshall who was diagnosed with cancer this time last year, she’s since completed treatment and raised a whopping £40k for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity!

The pair were joined by the multi award winning Sing Me Merseyside Choir led by Billy Hui on our grand piano.

Each tree at our centres are decorated with hundreds of fairies, designed by the world renowned artist Emma Rodgers, each one representing someone special. For every donation to the Fairy Appeal, we will place a symbolic Fairy on one of our trees.

You can also name or dedicate one of our Virtual Fairies to someone special, which will feature on our Virtual Christmas Tree. There are many different reasons why you may choose to dedicate a Fairy, it could be in memory of a loved one, to say thank you to a member of staff who supported you or your family or friends at the hospital, or to celebrate the special people in your life.

For this year’s Fairy Appeal we sat down with Eleri, who told us about her story and her experience at Clatterbridge around Christmas time.

“My name is Eleri, I’m 23 years old and in 2021, I was diagnosed with cancer. Last year, the only Christmas gift I wanted was my health. This year, I’m looking forward to Christmas time surrounded by my family.

I’d known that my body wasn’t right, so when I was told I had stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma, I felt heard instead of scared. But then everything hit me at once and I couldn’t process it – my life was about to change, I’d lose my hair and it would affect my fertility too, it wasn’t just the cancer, it was everything that went with it. It was difficult being so young too, attending appointments at my local hospital, I felt many pitiful glances coming my way. Then, I was given the option to undergo treatment at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s dedicated Teenage & Young Adult Unit, and it was a huge relief!

My cancer didn’t respond to chemotherapy so I was admitted as an inpatient and eventually started immunotherapy treatment before progressing to receive a stem cell transplant. I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone at Clatterbridge for picking me up at my lowest, looking after me when I couldn’t look after myself and being my friend – even decorating my room on my birthday. The team at Clatterbridge were a light of hope, giving me encouragement through my hardest times.

While it’s supposed to be the happiest time of year, it can be a huge struggle too, trying to stay on top form at such a special time was hard for me. I didn’t know what my future held, or even if I’d have another Christmas. I felt self conscious that my body had changed and all I felt I had to talk about was my cancer, it had become my life.

This year will be very different, as I can finally celebrate properly with my family around me and I have Clatterbridge to thank for that. I really do believe it is a special place and while they looked after me as a patient, I was always first and foremost an individual. The difference this made to me, not only physically, but mentally, was huge.

That’s why I’m supporting this year’s Fairy Appeal. To help Clatterbridge Cancer Charity to do even more for the people who need this remarkable place. Whether it’s research into immunotherapy treatments like I had, down to arts activity packs for a patient or a day out for young adults, your donations can change – or even save – a life like mine.”

Russ Scanlon took on our Skydive challenge

Our incredible supporter Russ Scanlon took on our Skydive challenge at the start of Novemer in memory of his wife, Deb Scanlon. Deb was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in May 2020, and was treated by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre by multidisciplinary teams across Warrington, Halton and Liverpool. Deb sadly passed away on 18th December 2021, but Russ and his family have now made it their mission to raise awareness of Bowel Cancer and to help raise vital funds for life-saving cancer research and treatments.

Having already completed Glow Green in February 2022 alongside Team Scanlon, Russ took on the Skydive on what would have been his and Debs' 17th wedding anniversary and has raised over £30,000 for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity.

"The Skydive was literally the scariest, most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I quite enjoyed it once the parachute opened!

I'm so pleased that those funds are currently making such a difference to the Charity's 'Innovations in Care' project which supports families with young children when a parent has been diagnosed with cancer."

We welcomed the wonderful charity champions from Tesco, for a tour of CCC-L!

Partly in thanks for the 'Tesco Community Scheme' grant raising £25,000 for the charity. Originally launched in 2016 as Bags of Help, Tesco Community Grants is celebrating 5 years of helping communities, £85 million in grants awarded and 36,000 groups supported.

We had a wonderful time showing these fantastic ladies around & it's because of these donations that this centre can continue to support local people with cancer.

We're already looking forward to a magical December, remember you can support us this Christmas by dedicating a fairy to our Fairy Appeal, to find out more click the button below!