Yorkshire & Humber
LEEDS
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Cat Carroll and Padma Dontamsetti are Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinators (YSCs) for the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Service in Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.
Hello
As you will know the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Service works across 2 sites, ward 33 LGI (13-18 years) and ward 94 St James (18-25years old)
Padma works on Ward 94 and Cat on Ward 33. Our main role is to support young people going through their cancer treatment and help to make it a less scary experience. Our role is to provide psychosocial support and help you have some sense of 'normality' whilst going through treatment. We get to know each of you beyond that of your cancer diagnosis, and give support in many ways, through activities, workshops, one to ones, social events and many more. We can work with you whether you are in hospital or at home. This also helps you to meet other young people and therefore get support from others who really understand.
This past year has been a bit strange, to say the least, and we haven’t been able to do some of the activities that we plan, as we would normally get groups of you together. So a lot of the activities have been done online.
We will be in touch with you when we hear about you, get to know you, and hopefully meet you in person! We will then invite you to join us on some of the events that we do, and invite you to join us on our social media platform called ‘CONNECT’.
Our contact details are below, so please say ‘Hi’ if you have not met us yet.
We really look forward to meeting you all
From
Padma (Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinator) Padma.dontamsetti@nhs.net 07775546052
Cat (Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Coordinator) Cat.carroll@nhs.net 07775572960
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https://www.younglivesvscancer.org.uk/what-we-do/the-six-ways-we-help/
Young Lives vs Cancer fights tirelessly to stop cancer destroying young lives.
We know everyone is different, so we work hard to help when each child and young person needs it most.
The Social Work Service in Leeds is provided by the social workers based at Leeds General Infirmary who currently work with young people up to the age of 19. If on-going social work support is required after your 19th birthday you can be transferred to the Young Lives vs Cancer social work team who provide a service up to the age of 25. Your current worker and new worker will meet with you to ensure there is a seamless transition to adult social work support. For any further information please contact: Sharon.watson@younglivesvscancer.org,uk
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Hello,
My name is Joe and I work for the Medical Needs Teaching Service at the LGI and with the TYA team at St James hospital. I am a learning mentor, and I help support the education and careers of young people who have an oncology diagnosis. I support people who are both on treatment and also those who have finished treatment. Here is a list of the kind of things that I do:
• Contact Schools, Colleges and Universities on behalf of a young person.
• Request curriculum work from schools and pass this information on to the teachers at the hospital school. This means young people can be taught the same work as their peers whilst spending time as an inpatient.
• Help with deferring university or college also requesting extensions for assessments.
• Discuss next steps after education and treatment, and advise on courses and careers.
• Run engagement sessions on the ward; these are fun activities, often craft or games, that help to make a young people feel more enthused about education in hospital.
• Source funding from charities to help with educational costs.
If there is anything that you would like me to help you with, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. I work between ward 33 at the LGI and ward 94 at St James hospital.
My contact details are:
Email - joe.hatch@eastsilc.org
Mobile - 07712216176
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If you are aged 16 years and over, and you are having, or have had your treatment at Leeds General Infirmary, we will start to talk to you about your transition to the adult cancer teams.
Transition means that we will introduce you to the new team and make sure that you have all the knowledge and information you need before you do. It’s not an overnight move, rather a gradual process and will usually happen when you are around 18 years of age.
From the day you are diagnosed we will work with you to help you to understand your illness, what treatment you will get and how you can manage your own health and decisions, as well as talking to your parents and family at the same time. This will help you in your move.
All of the cancer teams work very closely together; in fact they all meet once a week to discuss all of our young people and their treatment.
The Teenage Cancer Service:
You will already know that we have a Teenage and Young Adult Cancer service, and know some of the staff in it (please see leaflet…..). This team of people works across the city of Leeds, and sometimes beyond, with all young people aged 16 - 25years of age who have cancer. We have two inpatient areas that are just for young people. We describe this as unit - which is divided into two main areas:
- Ward L33 looks after teenagers aged 13 - 18 years of age and is at Leeds General Infirmary. Your outpatient appointments will have been here and you will have had a Key Worker, usually a nurse, who would have been your point of contact.
- The other part of the unit is at St James’s Hospital where we have Ward J94 which is for young people aged 18 - 24 years. There are also outpatient facilities here. If you would like to see a film of the ward, please see here
When you are coming up to 18 years of age we will transfer you to the adult cancer teams. As we have said here, the teams works across the two areas, so your Key Worker will help you prepare for this, and will be with you along the whole process. When you eventually go to the adult service he/she will go with you, explain things and introduce you to people.
We have some documents which will act as a guide for you, your family and us, on the information you will need to know, and the skills that we will help you to learn. If you would like to have a paper copy of these please do let us know. But, your Key Worker will talk you through it all.
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This is a website with a lot of films about Leeds Children’s Hospital made for young people
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This is a national website where young people have made short films about their cancer experience and beyond
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https://www.candlelighters.org.uk/
This is a local charity that supports children and young people with cancer (up to the age of 19 years) in Yorkshire
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https://www.maggies.org/our-centres/maggies-leeds/
This provides a calming atmosphere, a cup of team, support and information. Based at the St James’s Hospital site
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The Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre offers a variety of free supportive therapies and services for patients, their family members and carers. We have a team of staff and trained volunteers who can talk you through the services available.
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https://www.lauracranetrust.org/about/
We are based in Huddersfield and support young people with cancer through targeted cancer research, and support projects to help alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation.
We raise money to support 13 – 24-year-olds fighting cancer by funding medical and social research specifically into cancers that affect that age group.
We also provide support mechanisms to improve their quality of life and time spent on hospital wards and after treatment.
Our support is offered to 43 hospitals throughout the UK that treat teenage cancer.
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We have produced an accessible digital version of the TYA leaflet in PDF format, which you can download here.