Westmeath and Cavan to share cancer support specialist thanks to Katie Nugent Fund and Northern Ireland charity
The grief of the death of their daughter led a north Westmeath couple to establish the Katie Nugent Fund, one of two charities that have just joined forces to launch a new cancer community support service for children diagnosed with cancer and their families.
The partnership between The Cancer Fund for Children and the Katie Nugent Fund will see the roll-out of four new cancer support specialist roles nationally to provide social and emotional support to families across the island of Ireland impacted by a childhood cancer diagnosis.
One of the specialists will focus on Cavan/Westmeath; another on Dublin and the surrounding counties; a third on Cork and the surrounding counties and the fourth on Galway and the surrounding counties.
Support will be provided to young people aged 0-24 diagnosed with cancer of which there are an average of 340-360 each year.
The Katie Nugent Fund was founded by Nick and Alice Nugent of Ballinlough in 2011 after the death of their six-year-old daughter Katie a year earlier, after a courageous struggle with leukaemia, The fund raises aid to provide psychological and emotional support for the children attending the National Children’s Cancer Service at Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin (St John’s Ward) and their families, throughout the period of their treatment.
The Katie Nugent Fund has been working with the Cancer Fund for Children for over two years to plan for and develop this new service. In April this year they recruited their first Cancer Support Specialist based in the National Children’s Cancer Service in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin to provide informal emotional and social support to children under 16 years old diagnosed with cancer and their parents.
The impact of this work is being independently evaluated by Trinity College Dublin. In addition to this, another role will be recruited to provide support to older young people who are in-patients, recognising the unique set of needs that this age range has.
Cancer Fund for Children has over 40 years’ experience delivering this model of support to children diagnosed with cancer in Northern Ireland where they have an established team based in hospitals, in the community and at their therapeutic short break centre, Daisy Lodge in Newcastle, County Down. The charity is committed to ensuring that every child impacted by cancer on the island of Ireland has equitable access to services, a vision and commitment shared by the Katie Nugent Fund.
“Charities coming together to work in partnership to support children, young people and their families is the only way to make this happen, it is a much needed and exciting venture,” said Neil Symington, director of Services at Cancer Fund For Children.
“A cancer diagnosis affects the whole family and we understand that beyond the excellent care provided in hospital wards, the need for ongoing emotional support for the whole family is significant. Together with the Katie Nugent Fund we are committed to providing flexible, relational and needs led support. The fact that the needs of siblings and the wider families can now be met by a team working in the community goes a long way towards our ambition to ensure that no family should face childhood cancer alone.”
“The ambitions of the Katie Nugent Fund are closely aligned to those of Cancer Fund For Children and these community appointments have been made possible by the time, effort and money of many different people. Having seen the benefits that the service already provides within the National Children’s Cancer Service at CHI at Crumlin, I am excited to roll-out these four community specialists nationally. All of this will hopefully prove of immeasurable benefit to many families for years to come,” said, Alice Nugent of the Katie Nugent Fund.
The community-based staff will work with diagnosed children aged 0-24, their siblings and wider families through informal therapeutic social and emotional support, in their own homes, communities and shared care centres.
“This new cancer community support service across Ireland will have a major positive impact on young persons diagnosed with cancer in Ireland and their families. I am personally very excited that this service is being developed and am extremely grateful to the Katie Nugent Fund and the Cancer Fund for Children for developing this service that is desperately needed,” said Dr Cormac Owens, consultant paediatric oncologist at the National Children’s Cancer Service and Board member of Cancer Fund for Children.