Featured Charity: The Eleanor Rose Foundation - Ellie's Friends
Our first ever Featured Charity blog is from The Eleanor Rose Foundation, explaining about their new initiative to support cancer patients. A big thank you to them for taking the time to write for Womb Cancer Info.
The Eleanor Rose Foundation was set up a couple of years ago in memory of Ellie Jeffery, a broadcast journalist who died of breast cancer aged 29. The support we aim to provide is based on Ellie’s experiences and feelings about life with cancer; that people should have the chance to enjoy life, not just survive it.
We know from Ellie’s own experiences, which she described in her blog Written Off (www.writtenoff.net), that there are many people with a lot of goodwill and an abundance of things to offer who want to help people with cancer. While this help may be financial, it is often more rewarding for people to help directly; this could be as part of their job, by providing a product from their business, or simply by doing chores for someone who is going through treatment.
We have carried out research amongst people affected by cancer and found this to be one of the key areas where a current gap exists in cancer support services; in support which will enable people to enjoy some of the ordinary, everyday pleasures that are made more difficult by cancer as well as the practical help that is needed when treatment makes everyday life difficult.
Our online initiative Ellie’s Friends will enable people affected by cancer to find services specifically available to them that may benefit their well-being. We are developing a website which will also display services, products and skills that independent service providers (both businesses and individuals) are gifting at a free or reduced rate to try and help make life that bit more enjoyable.
With so many excellent UK-based charities, organisations and volunteer groups providing various help and support to people with cancer, we have also identified a need for one online hub where this information can be centrally displayed and accessed. This will ensure that people are well-informed of beneficial services and support that is available to them through these organisations, not missing out on anything because they’re not aware of it and enabling them to make full use of what’s available.
Cancer is costly in more ways than one. A Macmillan study into the financial impact of cancer found that people living with cancer on average pay £570 a month due directly to cancer-related issues (travel to hospital, parking, additional heating bills, extra medication, etc), and this doesn’t even take into account the almost one in three people whose loss of income amounts to £860 a month on average.
A reduced income means having to adjust your budget, and of course the first things to cut back on are the little treats that make life worthwhile. We currently offer a variety of things via our Facebook page, but we hope to launch the Ellie’s Friends website soon and through that, as Ellie wrote in her blog, ‘Make The Big C Smaller’.
To find out more about Ellie's Friends or to donate a gift/service:
Email: tom@eleanorrose.org
Website: www.elliesfriends.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElliesFriendsFridays
