About us

At Teenage Cancer Trust, we understand that young people with cancer require specialist care.

We know how damaging it is to take a young person away from their everyday life, their friends, their environment, their family – and put them in a cancer ward with small children or older people.

Young people have a much better chance in their fight against cancer if they are treated by teenage cancer experts, in an environment tailored to their needs. So we’re working every day to make that happen.

Building specialist units

We don’t believe that teenagers should have to stop being teenagers, just because they have cancer. So we fund and build specialist units for young people in NHS hospitals. Our units bring teenagers with cancer together with loads of new friends of their own age so they can support each other.

Alongside all of this is a medical team of teenage cancer specialists who pool knowledge to create a body of expertise that’s second to none. They’re backed up by our Nurse Consultants who provide clinical care, develop research, deliver professional education and ensure that standards remain as high as possible.

Teenage Cancer Trust units aren’t like ordinary cancer wards. Everything about them has been designed to give teenagers the very best chance of a positive outcome. We want every young person with cancer in this country to have that chance.

Our aim

We estimate that with the units we currently have around the UK, half of the teenagers diagnosed with cancer now have access to this dedicated, specialist support. Our aim is to build enough units so that by 2012, every teenager in the UK will be treated on one.

Other services

As well as our units we fund a number of different services.

Family support network

Teenage Cancer Trust’s family support network gives mums, dads, brothers and sisters the chance to meet other people who understand their situation at every stage of the cancer journey and beyond.

Research

We fund the country’s first Professor of Teenage Cancer Medicine who leads research into why young people get cancer and how best to treat it, ultimately improving diagnosis, treatment and survival rates.

Education

Our education and awareness programme aims to educate every young person in the UK about cancer, prevention and healthy living, empowering them to take control of their own health.

Find Your Sense of Tumour

Our annual conference is specifically for young people with cancer and gives them the chance to share experiences and learn more about their disease. Plus, 400 young people from all over the country in one place for a weekend…it’s pretty good fun too.

International conference

We hold the world’s only conference focusing solely on cancer and the adolescent where experts from across the globe share information and research, helping to improve the lives of young people with cancer internationally.

Medical courses

We fund courses for medical professionals at all levels, so they can improve how they treat young people with cancer.

“Teenage Cancer Trust units combine an expert team and the best possible therapy with the best possible environment for teenagers and young adults. And by focusing on quality of life, they can change a teenager’s outlook and give them the fight and attitude they need to beat cancer." Professor Tim Eden, Professor of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer.