Feeling cooped up at home and like everything has ground to a halt? That's nothing new for young cancer patients and their families. They need your support now more than ever.Cancer isn't stopping for coronavirus. While the number of families who need CLIC Sargent's support increases, income is dropping by 60%. But you can help from the comfort of your own home. Whatever you do, we want you on our team for young lives against cancer to support young cancer patients through their diagnosis.

My name is Kira O'Connor-Fitzgerald, and on 12th November 2018, I became one of those young cancer patients. I was diagnosed with Stage 3B Hodgkin's Lymphoma, after 5 months of trying to find out what was wrong. I was 16 years old, had just started Year 12, had a new job and was loving life, and then cancer pulled my life to a halt. I had just gone back to Sixth Form after an October half term spent undergoing multiple tests and a surgery, and was optimistic for the future. Two weeks after diagnosis I started chemotherapy. This world of cancer, tests, hospital appointments and treatment was new and scary for me. I was worried about my future, my education, my job and my health. And this is where CLIC Sargent comes in.

I met my CLIC Sargent Social worker the week before I started treatment. He explained who he was and what CLIC Sargent was and what they did. The first big help we got from CLIC Sargent was a place to stay at the Home from Home. My first week of chemotherapy was frightening , and although my chemotherapy didn't require me to stay in hospital, they wanted me nearby just in case I had a bad reaction to the treatment, or had horrendous side effects. Because my treatment hospital was in Oxford, that wouldn't of been a possibility without the CLIC Sargent Home from Home. Me and my family were given a bed in the house, 5 minute walk from the hospital. It gave me ease of mind, as well as not having to endure the long car journey to and from the hospital everyday.

From the start of treatment, my social worker was there to help us with financial worries, providing grants for travel and food, educational problems, helping me decide what to do and giving me the faith to continue my education whilst on treatment. He also was there, just for a chat whenever I needed it, helping me feel less lonely in a time where I was isolated from the world. 

I finished treatment on the 30th April 2019, and I am cancer free. But cancer has changed me forever and I was unaware of the lasting effect it would really have for me. Once I got the news I was cancer free, it hit me what I had really been through, and thankfully CLIC Sargent were there. My social worker helped me get mental health support, and I was also introduced to the CLIC Sargent Music Programme. Through this I was able to go to a residential and meet other young people with experiences similar to mine, and got me back into my passion for playing Saxophone.

Since then, I have attended a CLIC Sargent Young Persons Reference Group, made an amazing bunch of friends, who I can relate to, and have finally been able to plan my future and navigate my 'new normal'. Without CLIC Sargent, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't have finsihed Year 13, gotten an offer to study Medicine at university in September or be playing saxophone again, better than I ever was. Even now, as I am stuck inside being high risk to this scary disease, CLIC Sargent are there for me, from helping get food, to providing music and saxophone lessons to distract and keep me occupied.

Yes, cancer changed me, but CLIC Sargent made me realise, it changed me for the better, and that it does not define me.

Cancer doesn't stop for coronavirus, and CLIC Sargent not only having to support young people through their diagnosis, but also they scary situation of the world, and the fear that a lot of the young people they support are most vulnerable to this disease, like me. Please get involved, and donate as much or as little as you can, because 12 young people today will be told the news that they have cancer, and currently CLIC Sargent can only reach 2/3 of young people with a cancer diagnosis. You can help make that 3/3.