Thank you for visiting the Birmingham Teenagers and Young Adults fundraising page for Birmingham Teenagers with Cancer. This is your dedicated page but you may need an adults help in placing funds into it.

It's a New Year! Are you up for raising £50 for The Maria Watt Birmingham Foundation which is supporting Teenage Cancer Trust in Birmingham by the 31st December 2009?

We need £25,000 to reach our target of £100,000 by the end of 2009 in order to complete one room in the new Teenage Cancer Trust Unit in Birmingham Childrens Hospital which provides age appropriate facilities for teenagers with cancer.
 
If we can get 500 teenagers and young adults to raise just £50 each then we will have the remaining £25,000! What a great start to 2009.

However, if we can get 2009 teenagers and young adults to raise £50 you can raise £100,600 together and can donate another room in the name of Teenagers and Young Adults in Birmingham.

Who better to raise money for Teenage Cancer than other teenagers.  You could have a lot of fun coming up with creative ways to raise £50, knowing that it will be used in such a valuable way.

Every day in the UK, up to 6 teenagers or young adults (between the ages of 13 and 24) will find out they have cancer that is approximately 2,100 new cases a year. These young people, in the midst of their already difficult journey to adulthood, suddenly find themselves faced with a possible life-threatening illness and very often receiving treatment in inappropriate facilities with inadequate support options. Until the age of 16 a teenager is likely to be treated in a paediatric ward alongside toddlers. If the same teen was diagnosed after turning 16 then they are likely to end up in an adult ward with elderly patients. Many must put life on hold, just as it is starting to take off.
 
In either case the young person is being treated alongside people they can’t fully relate to, and is outside the speciality of their doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

Cancer in teenagers and young adults has a distinctive pattern and is different from that of children and older adults. It is important for their physical health and psychological well-being, that they be treated in a specialist facility that is built to meet their needs, and it is critical for their emotional well-being that they are treated in a comfortable environment where they have the opportunity to meet other people their age who understand what they are going through.

I know when I was a teenager, the last thing I wanted to do was hang out with grown ups or little kids - this money will allow teenagers with cancer to have their own space in hospital where they can be with other teenagers who can support each other.

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: The Maria Watt Birmingham Foundation for Childhood & Teenage Leukaemia gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Thank you for your support and please leave a message for our youngsters.  This page will be printed and given to the unit.