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About TCT We've all been teenagers. You may still be a teenager. You may be parents or grandparents of teenagers. We all know the pleasure and the pains of growing up into adulthood. Too many of us have seen cancer in our families and amongst our friends. We have seen the fear and emotional havoc it wreaks.
Each day in the UK, six teenagers will find out they have cancer. These young people often get a raw deal, receiving hospital treatment in inappropriate facilities alongside children or old people. TCT focuses on the particular needs of these teenagers and young adults with cancer, leukaemia, Hodgkin's and related diseases by creating specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. Britain was the first country in the world to establish teenage cancer units - a fact widely acknowledged in medical and scientific papers. TCT is proud to have played a leading role.
It is anticipated that treatment on a Teenage Cancer Trust unit can improve chances of survival by 15%. Building the units costs approximately £2 million each. The charity's target is to have at least 22 across the UK to ensure every young person has access to one. In addition to building units: In August 2005, TCT appointed Tim Eden as the world's very first Professor of Adolescent Oncology. TCT has invested £2.5m over 10 years to fund the post and a research team to act as a national voice on teenage cancer issues. It is hoped the Professor will increase international collaboration and clinical trial opportunities.
TCT funds an Annual Conference for teenagers, aptly named "Find Your Sense of Tumour". The event attracts 450 teenagers who have had a cancer experience. After a weekend of fun and laughter, which includes a lot of learning about the disease and ways of coping with the effects, they will go back to their lives with a renewed vigour. TCT funds an Education and Awareness team, which reaches over 300,000 students every year and ensures, in relevant surroundings, that pupils are well-informed about teen cancer and the work of TCT. The team visits schools, colleges and clubs all over the country. To ensure teenagers have adequate support once they leave hospital, TCT funds the TCT Support Network. It provides one-on-one counseling and organizes group counseling and social meetings in London for survivors, family and friends. We are planning to expand this network to other regions of the UK. Agreement has been reached to build a Teenage Cancer Trust unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Costing around £2 million, the new unit is likely to have ten beds for treating young cancer patients from East Anglia and the surrounding area. Work is due to begin in Spring 2009 with completion by the end of the year. The Teenage Cancer Trust unit will be developed within an existing ward at Addenbrooke's . The unit will include a mixture of in-patient and out-patient beds as well as day care facilities, and will admit patients between the ages of 13 and 22. The unit will have the latest technology – computers, game consoles, interactive systems, digitally-controlled lighting – and cutting-edge design. It will also have a kitchen for patients to prepare their own food. The innovative design will include open-plan social and recreational facilities, enabling patients to talk to each other as well as people from outside the unit. Addenbrooke's Hospital is the Regional Cancer Centre for the Eastern Region, and together with the University of Cambridge it has a reputation as a leading centre for cancer research. In 1999, the hospital's children's cancer care department received a boost with a new paediatric day unit and refurbished wards – but there are no special facilities for adolescents. Fifteen-year-old Harriet Eldridge, from Needingworth, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma when she was 14. Harriet is now in remission, but she remembers what it was like to be treated on a children's ward, with no-one her own age to talk to: “Being diagnosed with cancer was a shock in itself, but walking onto the children's ward with all the poorly babies and little ones was very upsetting. That's why it's so important for teenagers to have their own ward. I am so pleased Addenbrooke's will be getting its very own TCT unit – it means that other teenagers like me can be treated in a more positive atmosphere. Believe me, it makes all the difference.” Teenage Cancer Trust needs to raise £1 million over the next three years to raise the funds needed to build the unit – the rest will come from the charity's central funds. Simon Davies, Chief Executive of Teenage Cancer Trust said: “This has been a long time coming and we are so excited to finally be able to announce that we are building a unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge . The oncology facilities at the hospital are second-to-none and we know that our facility will add to the excellent reputation that the hospital has already earned for itself. "Patients in this age group - teenagers and young adults - have particular needs which are different to those of adults and children. They need specialist care because of the rarity of the tumours they get and also for the particular psychological and social problems they experience. Their lives are changing - they are moving from education to the world of work and they have cancer on top of that. It can be a very difficult time for them. Our unit will address all of these issues”. More information at |
Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) recognises that the trauma of cancer and its treatment, when added to the fragility of adolescence, demands a new and different approach. TCT was established in the 1990s to meet the needs of this largely neglected group of patients, and so began its mission to build dedicated units specifically designed for teenagers with cancer. 
TCT has already designed and built seven units in the UK; London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool. The units are developed as dedicated areas for teenage patients who will have been involved in the concept and design of the unit. They are filled with computers, TVs, DVD players, pool tables, kitchen facilities for parents and family members to stay overnight and are staffed with professionals able to deal with the specific needs of the teenage and young adult cancer patients. 
TCT's Multidisciplinary Forum allows medical and social care professionals working in the field of adolescent oncology to come together and share information on a regular basis. The charity's International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine, the fourth of which took place in March 2006, allows health professionals from around the globe to learn about the important work TCT is doing and to share best practice. 
