West of Scotland

Teenage Cancer Trust’s newest unit in the West of Scotland opened in January at The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow.

The Teenage Cancer Trust unit at The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow welcomed its first patients in January 2010.

With a funky kitchen, a chill out and study area, and the latest technology, the unit compliments the existing unit at The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre for older teens and young adults aged 16 to 24. These units will ensure that every young person between 13 and 24 who is diagnosed with cancer in the West of Scotland will have access to specialist, dedicated care and support.

Teenage Cancer Trust needs your help to:

• Raise funds to build a new unit at the New Children’s Hospital, Glasgow in 2015.
  
• Raise funds to maintain our current units at The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre & the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow.
  
• Provide essential services to support our patients and their families including a family and friends support network and specially trained medical and support staff.

Coming up

Find out what's coming up in the East of Scotland...

Help us win £50,000

We're in with the chance to win £50,000 from the People's Postcode Trust this Christmas - and your vote can help us win it! The Postcode Lottery is based on postcodes across the UK, players subscribe to play and can win huge prizes each week. From 30 October we're asking you to vote for us to win the £50,000! This money would go such a long way to help us support young people with cancer.

• Simply visit Vote that Counts
• Enter your name, date of birth, phone number, email address and postcode to register
• Select Teenage Cancer Trust
• Share it with all of your colleagues, friends and family, and ask them to make their Vote Count
• Voting is open until midnight 4 December, any UK citizen over the age of 16 can vote and winners will be announced on 18 December.

Vote for Teenage Cancer Trust now!

Latest news

Find out what's been going on in the West of Scotland...

Education & awareness talks inspire school fundraising

Regional Fundraiser, Siobhán O’Hara was delighted to be invited to meet with the charity committee at Uddingston Grammar School to collect a cheque for £411.18. Following a free Education and Awareness talk from our Regional Education & Advocacy Manager, Iona MacMillan, pupils were inspired to get involved and raise funds for teenagers with cancer. The committee put together a charity bowling night for staff and pupils to raise those well needed funds.

Many thanks to the organisers and those who attended the event. We hope you enjoyed your night & we greatly appreciate all of your fundraising efforts!

Lands End to John O’Groats Challenge

In September our West of Scotland Action group Chairman John Delaney and five brave companions calling themselves Team Tuna, took to their bikes to take on the Lands end to John O’Groats challenge cycling over 1,000 miles in just fifteen days.

As if that wasn’t enough, in the midst of the challenge two of the team took the day off to compete in “The Monster”, a 120K duathlon around Loch Ness. Not what most people consider a day off!

On their return John got in touch to give us some more information on the funnier side of the challenge. “We had no major incidents on the trip: a couple of minor falls and scrapes; one bike reverse-ramming a Toyota pick-up truck and one puncture within 200 yards from John O’Groats! There was one embarrassing incident when an unnamed member of the team chained their bike to railings at traffic lights in middle of English town then realised he had lost the key. He spent the next hour trying to get help, and eventually got a guy from a hardware store to free it using a hammer and chisel - much to the amusement of the large crowd that had gathered!”. When the team finally reached John O’Groats they were amused to find that the sign had been taken down for the weekend meaning no photo opportunities.

John has been fundraising tirelessly for Teenage Cancer Trust for many years in memory of his son Andrew who sadly passed away in 2003. The team are on track to raise their very honourable fundraising target of £5,000 and maybe more. We would like to say a big thankyou to John, Team Tuna, all those who helped with the organisation of the challenge and the local community of Lochwinnoch for their continued and loyal support.

Andrew Delaney (1987 – 2003)

Andrew (aged 14 at diagnosis): Loved playing footie, watching movies and eating pizza. Hated people who spoke to him like a ‘wee kid’ and being paralysed because of cancer. Wanted a space to have privacy and somewhere to hang out with people his own age.

Andrew was just 14 when a biopsy that diagnosed his incurable cancer also left him paralysed from the chest down. He was sent to the Schiehallion Ward at Yorkhill Hospital, but at 6ft tall was too big for their beds.

The alternative was an adult ward of elderly patients. Faced with this choice his parents decided to nurse him at home, where he died just before his 16th birthday.

Since his death the Delaney family have fundraised tirelessly to get Teenage Cancer Trust units built in Scotland.

It is fitting that the new unit at Yorkhill is in the very ward that Andrew was admitted to back in 2002.