Since November 2024, we’ve been funding complimentary therapies at our hospitals for patients going through cancer treatment, including a range of therapies such as reflexology, reiki, and massage.

Complimentary therapies can:

• Help with the holistic symptoms of cancer.
• Improve wellbeing and help reduce the stress and anxiety often experienced during cancer.
• Ease the physical side effects of treatments. Patients report that the fatigue and muscular pain is much reduced after therapy they often have more energy, a feeling of lightness and less pain in their legs.
• Help enable the patient to talk about and cope with difficult feelings. Patients have fed back that they are better able to express and manage difficult feelings, leading to improved emotional wellbeing.
• Provide patients with a sense of control.

Having the service has made a huge difference to cancer patients. All of the feedback we’ve received has shared what a positive experience they’ve and and how much it has helped them and their wellbeing.

 

TRACEY'S HOLISTIC EXPERIENCE

Tracey is a double breast cancer patient. She had two sessions of reflexology and two sessions of reiki at Weston General Hospital and said…

“I was sceptical at first. I called it hippy dippy, but I went anyway and it did work.

It’s a weird thing going through chemo. Everything is very organised. You do this, turn up, take that, so this was something normal. It made me feel human again. I had legs that felt like concrete and it was something to look forward to rather than being pumped full of chemicals every week. It made me feel feminine.

It was worth a million dollars. I walked out of there and my legs weren’t aching. It was lovely and I had a decent night’s sleep.

Lots of people having treatment are on statutory sick pay, so they could never afford something like this. It’s a nice treat and I would absolutely have it again.”

 

BRINGING COMFORT TO PATIENTS

We're so pleased the complimentary therapies have benefitted Tracey and so many other patients going through cancer treatment.

Here are some more heart-warming quotes from people who have received the therapies:

  
ONGOING SUPPORT

This project was only funded for one year and the need for support is high so each patient can only be guaranteed to receive one session.

From the feedback we've received from patients, this project has been a great success and we want to be able to continue this funding for another year to help even more patients and be able to offer more sessions.

With your support, we can continue to fund projects like this and help more patients going through cancer treatment. Thank you 💛

MAKE A DONATION FUNDRAISE