Dimbleby Cancer Care

Donna Triggs - Administrator

“A lot of people with a diagnosis of cancer feel alone and isolated. The services we offer help them to fight that, to see that they’re not on their own.”

Ingrid Emsden - Complementary therapist

“Complementary therapies work in a different way to other treatments and can enhance the quality of life and wellbeing of patients and their carers. It’s also about educating their relaxation response which can help in their daily lives. It’s giving them a tool.”

Mary Brown - Cancer Information Officer

“Patients with a cancer diagnosis often find it hard to speak to family and friends about their condition. In my role I provide a listening ear and a source of information to help people through a very difficult time. I’m a therapy radiographer by background, but working in support and information is a terrific way of making a difference in people’s lives.”

Margaret Evison - Psycho-oncology support coordinator

“Cancer is a disease which affects one so totally, one’s sense of self and one’s place in the world. Patients feel battered by the disease personally, and the presentations can be very complicated, where people are expected to put up with things that seem beyond what a person can be expected to endure. At a personal level, I like the idea of being able to help people who are caught in unbearably difficult situations – both patients and their carers - and I like the feeling that they feel they’ve got someone they can talk to who understands their issues and problems.”

Janet Seller - Psychotherapist

“One of the reasons I applied to work here was the reputation of the charity and the hospitals, and the quality of the psycho-oncology support.. Because you have a whole team of psychologists and counsellors, that means that patients’ and their carers’ needs can be responded to quickly, and for me there’s a privilege about working in a team that can offer that.”

Alex King - Psychologist

“My role is to work with the DCC team to advise and support the clinical teams in delivering good, psychologically minded health care.

It’s not easy seeing a psychologist in a hospital. It’s difficult to have a discussion about emotional states when you’re being treated medically. I really value the work that my colleagues do on the wards - the nursing staff, the medical staff, the complementary therapists and the allied health professionals – to have that ‘in-between conversation’ where the patient’s distress is acknowledged and put in a care framework.

It really feels good working here because we have the capacity to respond to need and to give a good quality of service as opposed to having to make some hard decisions about how to allocate time.”

Jean Meadows - Counsellor

“One of the most rewarding things I do is to run support groups here. I facilitate the brain group, the T-cell group and the head and neck group. For instance, people with head and neck cancer are often disfigured or have eating and swallowing disorders, or have difficulty speaking. That group is the only place in their life where they are together with people who have similar problems. They don’t feel self-conscious. They don’t feel judged in any way. They’re amongst people who understand.”

Kim Davies - Complementary therapist

“It’s very rewarding working on the wards alongside other health professionals. Some patients have to go through some unpleasant treatments and it is so good to give them something that they can enjoy and look forward to. If the patient can relax, it helps them undergo the treatment. It has taken many years, but now the other health professionals accept the usefulness and importance of what we complementary therapists are doing.”

Nathalie Asmall - Psychotherapist

“Cancer can function as a bit of a turning point in how people view what they really want in their life – what’s not happening, what would be worth living for. I have seen people make amazing changes, reinvent themselves and get well again, which is very inspiring. It’s a whole reassessment of how honestly you’ve been living your life. People often come initially because they think ‘This is awful. How am I going to cope?’ They are anxious about treatment and whether the cancer is going to come back after treatment. But once you start to get in touch with the potential for change that a crisis always brings - as scary as cancer is - it can have an exciting element as well.”

Rosemary Burch - South East London Group Co-ordinator

“am the project manager for an exciting DCC funded project, to promote professionally-led cancer support groups within the South East London Cancer Network. I am based partly at DCC where many groups take place. So far there are seven new groups, a training programme for facilitators, and we will shortly begin to evaluate the service. It is satisfying to see a context where patients can use their own expertise to help each other and themselves, and where health care professionals can gain confidence from listening to how it really is, and can witness adjustment and change.”