Raising awareness and helping charities

(Warning: This blog contains a sensitive topic)

Cancer: a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body; a malignant growth or tumour resulting from an uncontrolled division of cells.

Those are two dictionary definitions of cancer, but I feel a more accurate definition of cancer would be something along the lines of: a cruel and life changing disease that will affect everyone you know...

After the shock of David Bowie dying from Lung cancer on 10th January, followed by Alan Rickman dying from Pancreatic Cancer on 14th January 2016, both aged only 69. I think the world felt their loss as social media erupted that week with heartfelt messages of grief for both.

The sad truth is that now a days you will not, not know someone with cancer. I read a statistic from Cancer Research which, I can hardly put into words how shocking it is... "1 in 2 people in the UK will get cancer in their lifetime." Now this is a very general statistic encompasing age, gender, type of cancer, but its just such a crazy statistic.

Bearing that statistic in mind, not all of cancer patients will die. Many of them will be cured and "more than half live for more than 10 years." With the help of media, there have been many autobiography's, books and movies made in recent years about cancer patients, along with the selfless work of charities such as Cancer Research UK, Teenage Cancer Trust, Stand up to Cancer, and more, the end is in sight.

With the technology that we now possess and the scientific advances we are making, we are helping to make a difference. Cancer is very sad and does claim the lives of many too young, also those that are old, but there are so many survivor stories and so much that we can do to help make cancer patient's treatments as comfortable as possible.

In the past I have fundraised for Teenage Cancer Trust before and years later, I still believe it is a worthwile charity, and so are the others. At Teenage Cancer Trust they target young people aged 13-24 and put them on special young people's wards to make their treatment as pleasant as can be in the circumstances. One of the reasons this charity means so much to me is because they would be the ones to help me, if I need it; "Around seven young people aged between 13 and 24 are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK". The age group that TCT are focused on includes all of me and practially all of my friends, along with my two older brothers and my cousins.

The video below is a video from Teenage Cancer Trust and it is one of their nurses explaining why her work is so important and how the charity impact young people.

This week at uni we've been celebrating Environmental and Social Justic (ESJ) week and across the university there have been many different types of events from talks, to meditation, to movie nights. In my halls I have been organising a Charity Acoustic Night in which we will be showcasing student talent, and most importantly, raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust.

Please give generously to this amazing cause online by clicking here

All together we can

Thursday night was a great success, all of our acts were amazing and we raised over £65 on the night! Pictures and videos of the performances can be seen here