Mental Health United Kingdom Project #23785

Selfcare Workshops for Young People with Cancer

by Teens Unite Fighting Cancer

Project Report | Jul 11, 2022
Massage to improve health & emotional wellbeing

By Lesley Morris | Head of Trust Income & Partnerships

Treatment for cancer, including chemotherapy and targeted therapies, can cause a patient’s skin to become sensitive, flaky, dry, sore, and itchy. The skin can become red and peel.

Our relaxing hand massage therapy session for young people fighting cancer is designed to introduce beneficiaries to massage as a form of self-care, to teach them techniques that they can recreate whenever they need.

Some studies show that massage can relax your mind and body, relieve tension, and enhance mood. Massage can also improve sleep and enhance emotional well-being.

Further studies show that it can be used to counter some of the side effects of treatment, reduce nausea, and pain and improve circulation.

Overall, massage can provide a sense of calm.

Ahead of our online relaxing hand therapy session, the young people were sent a gift box containing some specially formulated hand cream, designed for cancer patients with their specific skincare needs in mind, a manicure kit, and some colourful nail varnish.

When the young people logged on to the session, they were guided step by step through the massage techniques, talking through the picture diagrams they were sent. Throughout the session the young people had time to chat and chill.

In these self-care type sessions, the young people offer support to each other on a whole range of physical, mental, and emotional issues. We hear them telling each other the importance of self-care, encouraging each other to create and maintain healthy relationships with themselves, and offering suggestions for simple things they can do to look after themselves, from regular sleep and a healthy diet through to having a warm bath and reading a book or listening to music. It is always heart-warming and shows how very special this little Community you have helped us to create is.

Not only do the young people now have a set of skills to help them relax, but they also have a group of peers who can offer support and understanding whenever they need.

Support of this project helps us to bring together more young people fighting the long-term effects of cancer, and we thank you.

Permalink

Mar 23, 2022
A Welcome Gift to Improve Confidence

By Lesley Morris | Head of Trust Income & Partnerships

True to our values of being an inclusive family where there is unconditional acceptance and trust, belief in our beneficiary’s potential and motivating them to not allow the “C” word to hold them back, our processes ensure that throughout their time with Teens Unite the young people are

Welcomed with an initial ice breaker call
Understood - their diagnosis and how it impacts them, their needs and their interests
Engaged with regular check-ins and messages to keep them updated
Invited to events and activities that allow them to connect with other young people
Given a voice, that, along with input from experts, ensures that our work is always fresh and relevant
And, most importantly, made to feel part of a very special little community, united in facing a terminal illness in teenage and young adult years

Teens Unite’s Teens Liaison Executive acts as an “onboarding” specialist ensuring that all beneficiaries are welcomed, and all questions and concerns are answered. Every young person who registers with Teens Unite receives a welcome pack with thoughtful, useful gifts which are designed to counteract the long-term effects of their diagnosis and treatment – our Liaison Executive will offer a Beauty, Creative or self-care pack whose contents have been identified from our work with service users and health care professionals to ensure that the packs contain genuinely useful items.

The welcome packs that your generosity has helped us to create contain a make-up brush kit; eyebrow powder and stencil kit; eyeshadow palette; organic lip balms; blusher; hand and nail cream; a nail file, and nail varnish.

Finding out you have cancer can be daunting and life-changing, and the added stress that the side effects of treatment can have on your appearance can be demoralising and hard to cope with. Being able to minimise the psychological stresses often caused by a change in appearance is essential for the young people’s mental wellbeing. Safe to use make-up products and professional tips help the young people to create the effect of eyebrows and lashes so often lost through treatment, take care of their hands and nails weakened by the treatment, and experiment with colour as their skin changes.

From all of the newly registered young people who have joined us this quarter and received a welcome pack of beauty items, a huge thank you to you for your generosity.

Permalink

Nov 29, 2021
dab, smooth, & puff your way to a confidence boost

By Lesley Morris | Head of Trust Income & Partnerships

In this online, self-care workshop, we invited seventeen young people to join us for an easy skin care routine, and the opportunity to get to know each other. With weakened immune systems, the young people are still cautious about joining us for a face-to-face session, using public transport and meeting with others outside of their usual “bubble”. So, an online opportunity was ideal.

Ahead of the session, we posted out a self-care pack which contained safe and nurturing products that are perfect for dry, sore, itchy, flaky and sensitive skin, so often caused by the treatment of cancer. Skin-related side effects tend to be temporary, but they can be a source of real anxiety – especially for young women. If they don’t look or feel themselves, it can make their treatment more stressful.

So, inviting these young ladies to join us and learn some takeaway skills that help them take good care of their skin and give it a boost will help them feel more like themselves.

In this online session, we learned how to

Cleanse, tone and moisturise – three simple steps to follow every day
Apply a silicone based make up primer to even out skin tone
Dab a creamy concealer on the dark areas around the eyes
Smooth a colour-correcting cream to brighten the skin
Puff a little blush to the cheeks to give a little glow
Moisten the lips with a tinted balm

We also learned techniques to create the effect of eyelashes and eyebrows with a soft eyeline and eyebrow pencil, and powder. The young ladies felt energised and with renewed confidence, knowing that they have the basic skills to be able to recreate their new look whenever they needed.

However, the most powerful take-aways come from the “small talk” encounters of these events, where the young people realise that they are not alone in feeling the way that they do.

So, to everyone who has supported this project, we thank you for supporting us to being more of these young people together to help them understand that they are not alone.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.