About HCCN the Charity
Our aim is to help people who are recovering from or living with cancer in the Huntingdonshire area to take back control of their lives and play an active part in managing their health.
Working alongside the HCCN nursing service, we aim to help people just like you who have received a cancer diagnosis, are going through treatment, are recovering from or are living with cancer. Our ambition is to fill the gap that the NHS would want to provide for but hasn’t the resources or funding.
- We try to ensure that what we deliver can be experienced by everyone who needs it and therefore make our offerings free of charge.
- Anyone over the age of 18, living in the Hunts region, affected directly or indirectly by cancer, can access our services.
- We include both GP referrals and self-directed care.
- We also include families and carers.
We do this by focussing our charitable objectives on exercise, healthy eating, education, emotional wellbeing and by supporting the community nurses.
Exercise
We run both prehab and rehabilitation exercise programmes. We offer a range of ways to support people to Get Active from gym based activities, online via Zoom, yoga, Tai Chi and so much more.
Healthy eating
We are currently researching an activity that will provide education and practical application of how to prepare nutritional and simple meals for before and during treatment. Our Patron Prof. Thomas is a renowned author on the subject of lifestyle and cancer.
Conferences
We run two educational conferences a year to enable people to come together to talk to others and to hear from experts in the fields of nutrition, exercise, developments in cancer diagnosis and treatments, intimate relationship issues, managing our end of life, complementary therapies and a whole range of subjects important to our users.
Emotional Wellbeing
Some people can come to terms with the shock associated with a cancer diagnosis, whether it’s you or someone you love. But not always. Our support groups are open to anyone who wants to talk with others. Access to counselling is not easy to access on the NHS so we offer adult, couple and child counselling as it is needed.
Supporting the nursing team
We are all aware of the shortage of nursing staff. We need well-trained community nurses and we need to keep them. The NHS meets the nurses’ salaries and some other costs. However, their technology needs and specialist oncology training are covered by the charity.
Our Values & Beliefs
- People want to be independent
- Support from other people is extremely helpful
- There must an evidence base for our activities
- Laughter really helps
- Learning can take time and that’s okay
Our goals
We want to encourage a more objective view of cancer and to help people understand the trajectory of cancer is ever changing. Increasingly cancer can be lived with in the same way as other long-term conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma, particularly when individuals are actively involved in managing their health.
There are 2 million people in England with a diagnosis of cancer. This number is likely to grow by more than 3% per year, reflecting the increasing incidence of cancer and better survival rates. By 2030 there are likely to be around 4 million cancer survivors in UK.
Evidence shows that the current model of cancer follow-up is not meeting people’s needs and will not cope if the number of people living with cancer increases at the expected rate. While the NHS funds the nursing service through CCG funding (Clinical Commissioning Groups which replaced Primary Care Trusts), everyone involved in running the charity volunteers their time freely, we strive to keep our costs low and our fundraising high.
HCCN the Charity is proud to be awarded the Charity Excellence Quality Mark
This is in recognition: of the ongoing promotion of good governance and maximisation of strategic impact; for effectively leading and managing people; and capitalising on operational delivery. The trustees have demonstrated effective risk management, efficient use of finance and resources and making the most from income generation and communications.