practical and emotional support for those affected by cancer
Charity Number 1099299
HISTORY
The need for a centre where cancer patients could receive emotional, psychological and practical support and information to help them during the difficult and challenging times from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond has been recognised by staff at Addenbrooke’s for many years, but was bought to the attention of the Friends of Addenbrooke’s by Mary Wallace, a founder member of the Friends committee, a nurse, and herself a cancer sufferer. Mary lived with cancer for over seven years. Her experience as a nurse but also as a patient gave her a double perspective on problems faced by cancer patients and their families. She was particularly aware of the importance of the holistic approach to cancer care, where not only the physical aspects of the disease are treated, but also the psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of the person are addressed. She identified with the desire many patients feel to take an active role in their treatment and care, and was acutely aware of the burden that her disease placed on her husband, teenaged daughters and family, and the support that they also needed.
Tragically, her disease overtook her before the sort of centre she envisaged could be established, but she had a great ability to enthuse others, and it is as a result of her determination and her vision that Wallace Cancer Care came to exist.
The centre Mary envisioned provides a non-clinical welcoming space where patients, their families and friends can access high quality information about their disease, their treatment, and ways that they can help themselves, talk about their anxieties and concerns with empathetic, trained listeners, a counsellor or a cancer nurse, access complementary treatments or simply rest and relax before or after appointments, or when appointments or treatments are delayed.
After Mary’s death shortly before her 47th birthday, her family and friends established a fund to provide an information library for cancer patients at Addenbrooke’s. With the help of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, and friends who shared her vision, Wallace Cancer Care has grown from this modest ambition to provide two centres, the drop-in centre and the off site facility, where a holistic approach to cancer care is offered to all cancer patients and their carers.
