Where our money goes
14 February 2024The Head & Neck Cancer Support Aotearoa Charitable Trust is relatively new and was set up in 2020 just as the pandemic hit. It is also the only head and neck cancer support charity in New Zealand. Unlike breast, prostate, bowel and blood cancers, head and neck cancer awareness and funding goes pretty much under the radar. Because of this we are overlooked when it comes to financial support and our charity was set up to do our best to fill that gap and need. To date we have been operating on private donations from fellow patients together with their family and friends. Donors help us to offer practical support to some of our most vulnerable patients who might have little or no financial or emotional support.
We started providing patient packs for all new patients attending Multi-Disciplinary Meetings (MDMs) at Auckland Hospital back in 2020 as a trial and then branched out to Dunedin and Waikato and have recently added Christchurch and Hutt Hospitals as well.
Our goal is to continue extending our reach so that every patient in New Zealand attending an MDM will receive the pack and know right from the start, that as daunting and impossible that their treatment will seem, we are there to help with (and understand) the fear and anxiety that they are going to be experiencing.
Toni Davis