Head & Neck Cancer Support Charitable Trust

Head and neck cancer is a truly horrible disease: painful treatment, disfigurement, loss of voice, no social eating, expensive dental work down the track and little recognition by society. Because of some fabulous treatments by our medical services, many of us are patched up almost good as new again but the mental, physical and financial strains remain.

We already give peer support to fellow head and neckers and we all love the supportive community we have created.

However, as we have grown from a Facebook group into a Charitable Trust, we want to help patients better. We have raised funds for patient packs consisting of a tote bag containing items a new patient might need to more expensive goods that might be a great importance to some families.

Our first major items at this level have been blenders for soft food eaters and dry mouth products like Oral 7.

Next on the list will be travel items like petrol vouchers, taxi and Uber credit and parking vouchers. We need to raise money for this and so in the months surrounding World Head and Neck Cancer Day (July 27) we will fundraise as much as we can.

How patients felt at diagnosis

“Shock. Half of my mouth was going to be removed.”

“But my kids are too young to lose their mum.”

“Thoughts of disfigurement filled my mind”.

“Shock and fear of the unknown.”

“Would my appearance scare my granddaughter?

“Maybe death would be a better option?”

“There was a 50/50 chance I wouldn’t be around in five years.”

“The ever-present difficulty of communicating with the world. It is very isolating.”

“A sense of self-disgust. Over half my tongue was going to be cut out.”