Families to get more support after diagnosis

A charity has pledged to help more Gloucestershire families affected by blood cancer diagnoses.

Linc said it will offer five new services over the next five years for families following a diagnosis, including new counselling support.

Nikki Tandy, who was diagnosed with lymphoma, said news of the expansion was "brilliant" as Linc paid for her son to go to a holiday club while she had radiotherapy, allowing her husband to continue working.

CEO Louise Neal said Linc's new space at Patch at The Forum in Gloucester will allow patients and their families to "receive support away from the hospital setting".

Linc is based within the haematology departments at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital.

Along with a new counselling service, Linc said it will also introduce a peer support programme and double the financial assistance offered through the Linc Fund.

The fund helps patients with mortgage and rent payments, childcare costs, and alternative pain relief.

Tandy, from Bishop's Cleeve, said Linc paying for William - who was then six - to go to a holiday club meant she knew he was safe while she was having treatment.

"It just meant a massive weight was lifted off my shoulders," she said.

"He'd literally just started school that year when I first got diagnosed, so it was quite traumatic and they just I managed to eliminate that worry so that I could go to therapy every day, really."

Linc also funds clinical psychologists' care and clinical trial nurses.

Lisa Daniels, a haematology nurse specialist, said she has seen Linc support "countless patients" over the decade she has worked in her role.

"We're already running here at Patch some patient support groups, which we've not been able to run before, supported by the Linc team," she said.

"Coming to somewhere like Patch, which is a very different environment, very beautiful environment, and just getting away from those clinical areas is really important."