Each year over 14,000 children, teenagers and adults undergo
cancer treatment at University College Hospital (UCH), a number that is rising annually. 

The UCH Cancer Fund supports enhanced services over and above what the NHS is able to provide. With your support, we are able to fund extra patient services to the meet the practical, emotional and social needs of patients and their carers, purchase extra medical equipment, replace old equipment as well as contribute to research and clinical staff development.

Your donation to Team Amplifi Trekfest will be supporting our Art of Life project. Our Creative Specialist, Dr Lizzie Burns who is a scientist-turned-artist, funded solely through charitable giving, is able to offer much needed mental stimulation for patients, especially those in hospital for long periods of time or with poor prognosis.

The creative sessions bring an additional dimension to caring for cancer patients that is over and above the care provided by the various healthcare professionals. The facilitation of patients being given the freedom to express themselves through art is extremely valuable and takes them away from their cancer diagnosis and treatment. Through curiosity, dialogue and trust, Dr Burns has helped patients of all ages and abilities to discover they can do much more than they realised. Patients have discovered new talents, started new projects to inspire others and made objects to express themselves and their love of their families. 

These creative sessions have many benefits including a positive intervention on mental health, offering patients a distraction from their cancer, helping them to focus and relieve the boredom of long hospital stays. They can also reduce symptoms associated with cancer such as tiredness, anxiety and depression. Clinical staff also benefit from this creative project as they reduce the burn-out of staff in wards where survival rates are poor.