People living with breast cancer in the North East have benefited from a special well-being event thanks to a partnership between Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust and Future Dreams, a nationwide breast cancer charity.
The groundbreaking breast cancer charity Future Dreams wanted to bring its ‘nobody should face cancer alone’ mission to NHS patients in the North East. This was the first of a kind innovative ‘pop-up’ Wellbeing Days, delivered at Gateshead’s iconic Baltic Centre.
The event was organised by Caroline Tweedie, Cancer Clinical Lead Practitioner for Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, who is currently on secondment in the role of Macmillan Lead Practitioner for Living with Cancer at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.
To help with the planning Breast cancer patients in the region were surveyed and local breast care teams were asked the issues their patients needed the most help with. The survey identified that many local women suffer with the long-term psychological impact of breast cancer including depression and the fear of recurrence.
Caroline comments on the importance of having events like this
We have decided to collaborate with Future Dreams in the North East to share the expertise across the region and allow women to understand and empower themselves with different aspects of recovery.
It is important to create a really strong network of women that understand each other as it can be isolating when you hear the words that you have got cancer
Caroline Tweedie, Cancer Clinical Lead Practitioner for Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, who is currently on secondment in the role of Macmillan Lead Practitioner for Living with Cancer at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.
The event was an opportunity for 50 local women to come together and share their experiences of going through treatment for breast cancer. The day was a holistic retreat with healthcare experts sharing inspiration on topics such as nutrition, fatigue, and mindfulness.
The sessions tackled some of those issues head on and empowered patients to focus on their physical and emotional well-being with yoga sessions and an opportunity to network and share their experiences with other women.
Lyndsey Riley, a patient, comments on networking with others, “It’s been really good to meet people in the same boat as yourself and find someone my age who lives locally and share what we have been through.”
Kerry Gowland, Organisational Development Practitioner at Gateshead Health said, “It’s lovely to be in a room with people who have had a similar experience as it can feel quite lonely going through treatment. It feels like a real community with useful information. As I work at Gateshead Health, being in a room with colleagues has made me feel supported.”
Gateshead Health has the ambition to become a centre of excellence for women’s health and opportunities to help the women of Gateshead access professional support and information will benefit our patients.
Durham MP, Mary Foy who was at the event, and is a patient of Gateshead Health, is all praise for the team:
From the beginning to having my surgery the staff were fantastic, so supportive, so thorough, and made me feel as positive as possible.
I would like to encourage women to go for their routine mammogram, that few minutes of embarrassment and discomfort can save your life
Durham MP, Mary Foy
The day was a success with patients networking as well as learning about a range of topics and further support available.
One patient, Clare Sacco said, “It’s been beneficial and it’s great to have something in the North East and cover the important topics when dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis. It was nice to get specific information that would be useful to me and learn about the 1-2-1 sessions on offer.”
Future Dreams offers a range of support options from workshops, podcasts, 1-2-1 sessions, and their website which has valuable information for anyone going through or recovering from breast cancer.
Watch this short video about the event.