Help children with cancer in the UK get to lifesaving treatment
Getting to cancer treatment is a serious problem. Together, we can solve it for good.
Join our community of supporters helping us to set up a much-needed transport service to take the struggle out of travelling to hospital.
Today, 12 mums and dads will receive the news no parent ever wants to hear - your child has cancer.
Eight of them will need to travel far for treatment. Young people with cancer in the UK and their families are struggling to travel to hospital. We’re on a mission to change that.
A national average of 60 miles
On average, a child travels 60 miles* to access the cancer treatment they need to survive. But many families travel hundreds of miles and up to 200 times during treatment.
Most families need help
Nearly 70% of parents rely on loved ones for financial and practical assistance with travel. Only 6% of families are entitled to assistance from the NHS Healthcare Travel Cost Scheme.*
They don’t have a choice
An estimated average of 65% of young people with cancer need to travel out of their county for treatment. Families spend on average £200 per month to pay for it.
Children with cancer in the UK deserve and need a better way
Families are already struggling with a shattering diagnosis of childhood cancer. That's why we’re asking the government to create a travel fund and why we need to create a dedicated transport service. We want to support families fighting childhood cancer by eliminating the stress of travelling to and from treatment.
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Families like Seraph's
juggle full-time work with the care of a very sick child, and rely on the kindness of others to make their appointments at the hospital for years.
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Families like Esmé's
by day, do the best for their seriously ill children and, by night, write letters to charities asking for financial help. They can barely make ends meet.
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Families like Sidney's
need to access specialised treatment hundreds of miles away without risking a serious infection on crowded trains.
A problem affecting families all around the UK
Seraph, Esmé and Sidney are not alone in these challenges. Every two hours in the UK, a child or young person is told that they have cancer. Research shows that there are three big challenges facing families needing to take their children with cancer to hospital appointments.
Long distances
Only 19 hospitals in the UK are best equipped to diagnose and treat young people with cancer. So they often travel twice as far as adults with the same illness, which costs a lot of money and time. In the East of England the average is 90 miles and almost 130 in Cornwall. If children need even more specialised treatment, like proton beam therapy, only two hospitals can treat them, not to mention all those who have to travel abroad.
Travel costs
It costs many families an average of £250 a month just to get their children to and from their hospital appointments. Costs include fuel, car parking, car maintenance, train and bus tickets and taxi fares.
Access to a vehicle
Families with no access to a car have to rely on the kindness of a friend or relative. Others have no choice but to take public transport, which can be life threatening for vulnerable children with compromised immune systems.
Our report shares the challenges facing young people with cancer and the distances they have to travel with their families to receive treatment.
Every great movement begins with a big dream… and you.
Together, we can ask our government to cover the costs of travelling for treatment - we’ll do that with a petition.
But a travel fund alone isn’t enough to help families who need to travel across the country or abroad for cancer treatment – this is why we need to create a dedicated transport service.
We are starting a new petition asking the government to create a travel fund for all young cancer patients. Each child, each young person, should receive the money they need to travel to hospital based on their family needs, not on how much their parents earn.
Starting in the East of England, we want to provide young people and children with cancer free, non-emergency transport to and from their hospital appointments.
There are two things you can do right now:
1. Donate and make it happen
If you want to help fund a much needed transport service for children with cancer in the the East of England and UK, please donate what you can – if we all chip in, we can make it happen.
2. Sign the petition
By signing our petition, you’ll be telling our government that children with cancer and their families deserve access to free travel to and from hospital.
Families of children with cancer are struggling to pay for food, rent and energy bills at a time they need support the most.
We are calling on the government to create a Young Patient Travel Fund - this fund should be available to all children and young people with cancer in the UK, be based on need (not income) and cover all costs associated with safe travel to and from cancer treatment.
This fund is extremely important so that families won’t need to find hundreds, or even thousands of pounds to pay for travel to hospital.
Our impact since 2015
7,000+ trips to and from hospital
2 countries
We’re helping children and young people with cancer get to lifesaving treatment.
We are a volunteer-led small charity. Through research and the trialling of new solutions, we want to transform how children get to medical care, while supporting their families through some of the most challenging times they’ll live through. We have already helped create transport support services for children in Myanmar and Ghana.
We’re now working to create a much-needed volunteer transport service for young people with cancer in the UK.
