Christmas. It’s a lot.

Christmas with cancer? It’s too much.

Too overwhelming. Too expensive. Too painful.

People living with cancer in their 20s, 30s or 40s face unique challenges, very different to younger and older cancer patients.

In this phase of life, most of us make our career, raise our family, buy our home. But a cancer diagnosis can put a stop to all that. It’s scary and painful to deal with every day.

Then Christmas arrives.

Parties, travel plans, carol singing. But you have fatigue, you’re on meds, and vulnerable to infection. You can’t have the Christmas you want. You feel guilty, even when your loved ones say, ‘it doesn’t matter.’

Money worries are real. Doing the Big Shop? Getting that extra stocking filler? Not so easy if you’re on sick leave and your income has taken a hit.

And in the midst of it all, the constant thrum of worry, ‘will I even be here next year?’. Putting on a brave face is exhausting.

That’s why Shine connects young adults with cancer, putting them together with others who ‘just get it’.

There is strength in numbers. And it costs just £10 to connect someone with cancer to Shine’s UK wide support network.

Please, will you donate this Christmas, so no one faces cancer alone?

You can help people with cancer now and those who, sadly, are on their way to us in the coming year. We need to start 2026 in a strong position, ready to support them.

Thank you so much.