Wanted: Cancer Champions for the community

ORGANISERS of a project which aims to support people in Plymouth affected by cancer is appealing for community ‘champions’ who can be there to provide vital advice – or just offer a listening ear.

- ANDY PHILLIPS

The Plymouth Cancer Champions Project is funded by Macmillan Cancer and is hosted by the Zebra Collective at the Mount Wise Neighbourhood Centre.

With a new project manager having taken the helm of their six-strong team, a ‘connections’ conference is being held this Thursday, November 21, at Devonport Market Hall from 10am-3pm, aimed at creating links with other interested groups but also members of the public.

Although the project has been running since April, project manager Niqui Bond believes there are many people who will not yet have heard about it.

They are already working in collaboration with Age UK Plymouth, Wolseley Trust and to an extent the Waterside PCN, but Niqui said: “I would love people to know about the project, as we are fairly new and only started in April, and we have made lots of links within Devonport and Stonehouse where we are starting, but actually there are a lot of other areas and lots of other people who might be interested in what we are doing, but don’t even know we exist.”

The project has funding for three years, and aims to both prevent and detect cancer, but also provide support for those who might have had treatment and need greater help.