The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust

The difference we make

Cancer treatment can be very lonely with long periods of isolation away from friends, family and school.

For many young people, simply picking up where they left off before their diagnosis isn’t possible. That is why when treatment ends, our work begins.

Through sailing and outdoor activity, young people…

• build confidence by making friends with others who have had similar experiences - often for the first time.
• rediscover independence away from home and outside of their ‘cancer bubble’.
• begin to realise what they are capable of again.
• stop feeling like the ‘only one’.

Their mental wellbeing improves, and they can start to re-establish their place in the world by getting back into education or employment and reconnecting with their friends and families.

Every young person should feel valued, accepted, optimistic and independent living through and beyond cancer.