The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation

The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation is a charity that provides emotional or physical support to teenagers and young people with cancer. The Foundation also funds research into rare and aggressive cancers that affect young people specifically.

www.tombowdidgefoundation.org Fundraise for us

nikkibowdidge@tombowdidgefoundation.org

07771646654

Registered charity no. 1156553

Member since April 2018

Latest News

GRANT APPLICATIONS SOAR AS COVID-19 HITS

Whilst our registered office is in Essex, we support young people nationally. Since March 2020 our grant applications have rocketed to over 980%. We are working with social workers across the UK and they are putting us in contact with those that need support desperately during Covid-19. The cost of a cancer diagnosis per family is around £600 a month and this has now been exacerbated due to Covid-19. Many are having to shield and remain in strict isolation as they are extremely vulnerable. They have now lost their incomes with no benefits being issued. Many parents are being furloughed and, with a reduced income, are finding there is a significant financial burden with additional travel, heating, food, clothing etc. For many, debts are spiralling out of control. One young amputee has asked for our help as he is now facing 10 months of chemotherapy and needs us to pay for accommodation costs for his family as they cannot stay by his bedside in hospital, as well as help with travel costs to and from hospital. Mental health is becoming an increasing worry as the young cancer patients are experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety and depression which, we as a charity need to support. For some, we are providing IT equipment to help them stay in contact with peers and as a vital channel of communication with family and friends. We have never been needed more.

About us

Tom Bowdidge was 19 when he passed away after a 13 month fight with a very aggressive and rare cancer. He raised over £178,000 when he was alive for a teenage cancer charity and it was Tom’s wish that his fundraising would continue. He felt that if this was to be done with maximum impact the focus should fall on three key areas – physical and emotional support alongside research. Each of these areas plays a significant part in a cancer diagnosis and the journey that follows.

PHYSICAL – The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation aims to fund projects that will provide support for the day to day care of teenage cancer sufferers and their families. It is so important that a young person’s life does not stop because they have cancer. They need to be treated as young people first, cancer patients second. Young people with cancer need expert treatment and support. Only half the teenagers and young people diagnosed are treated in specialist units often far from their home, friends and family. Many patients may also have to attend their local hospital as part of a shared care scheme. The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation wants to ensure they are treated in age appropriate areas where there is space for them to have family or friends by their side. EMOTIONAL – Teenagers and their families need teams of specialist people to look after their emotional needs; providing people for them to talk to and to help them understand what is happening to them. The Tom Bowdidge Foundation provides clinical, practical, financial and emotional support to help them cope with their cancer diagnosis. Working closely with social workers we are able to reach teenagers and young adults who need support at this time and provide grants. These grants can be for a wide range of things i.e mattresses for a bed, new clothes because their weight has changed, help with travel costs to and from hospital, help with increased food bills due to steroids and laptops to help them continue their studies whilst in hospital. RESEARCH – We will support the carrying out of research into teenage cancers with specific reference to sarcoma research. Tom was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive type of soft tissue sarcoma called Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumour (DSRCT). The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation is funding a research project at the Institute of Cancer Research, to understand and find treatments for DSRCT and other types of soft tissue sarcoma that affect young people. Treatments available for these aggressive cancers often cause life-changing side-effects that damage healthy organs, change the appearance of patients, result in infertility, and lead to growth and developmental problems. The research team that the Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation is funding aim to find more effective and less toxic treatments that target the specific molecular defects that drive the growth of these deadly tumours.