Why Cancer Counselling

Cancer counselling charity We Hear You is celebrating a fantastic response to tough financial times from its supporters, with more than £2,000 raised during the last fortnight.

The Mitchell family in Frome raised £325 on Saturday 25th April selling pizza baked in their home pizza oven (pictured), the charity has seen an increase in one-off and regular donations, birthday fundraisers and one-off challenges and is delighted with the success of its WHYworkout challenge, where supporters complete a short workout, make a donation and nominate friends to do the same.

We Hear You stands to lose up to 70% of its predicted fundraising income for the 2020/2021 financial year and, like many charities, faces an uncertain future, with most community fundraising through the spring and summer postponed or cancelled. Fundraising and Communications Manager at WHY, Gemma Wilkes, says:

“We’ve had a really good few years at WHY and have grown enormously, both in terms of the service we provide and our community fundraising income. We’re proud of it and we’re determined to come out of the other side of the pandemic offering support to people affected by cancer and life-threatening conditions. In addition to our usual one-to-one counselling service, which continues via phone and online, we’ve launched a Covid-19 specific crisis support service to provide speedy telephone support for people who have or have had Covid-19. It’s the right thing for us to do, but obviously it means we need to find even more money. So we’d like to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to the many people who’ve gone the extra mile for us under such difficult circumstances in recent weeks and to people in counselling who’ve made generous donations to WHY. It costs more than £5,000 every week to run our services, so we’re incredibly grateful to you all for your support, it really does make a difference, please keep supporting us to support you.”

Five-year-old Esme completed 26 repetitions of a different activity every day for a week for the London Marathon’s 2.6 Challenge, including baking 26 cupcakes, making 26 bird feeders and walking 2.6km:

“I had lots of fun doing all the things and am really happy I got so much money to help. Thank you for helping me.”

Shelley O’Regan, a childminder in Frome, shaved her head as part of a birthday fundraiser and said: “I guess cancer charities are close to my heart having lost a number of people close to me, and I wanted to do my bit in supporting those affected by Covid 19, so WHY ticked both boxes.”

Arthur, William and Edward shaved their heads along with their dad, while mum Jazz ran a marathon over ten days for the 2.6 challenge. Arthur,  aged 11 said “I think charity is still important in this difficult time because people still need someone to help them and to talk to and may get lonely and sad if they don’t have anyone to talk to.” Five-year-old brothers William and Edward got involved because ‘people should be kind’ and because they wanted to ‘help people who are sad because of coronavirus’

To make a one-off or regular donation to We Hear You, please visit www.wehearyou.org.uk/donate. For ideas about fundraising during lockdown, including the WHYworkout challenge, please see wehearyou.org.uk/events or email fundraising@wehearyou.org.uk for support with your idea.

To refer yourself for free professional counselling, please call 01373 455255 or email info@wehearyou.org.uk.