Marie Curie Cancer Care provides high quality care for terminally ill patients at the end of their lives. Their nurses care for a half of all cancer patients in the UK who die at home and are the largest provider of hospice care in the UK outside the NHS. Increasingly, Marie Curie Cancer care is being called upon to care for young people aged 16 to 25 with cancer and other life limiting diseases, enabling them to be cared for in the comfort of their own homes at the end of their lives. Marie Curie Cancer Care also supports children and young people who are experiencing the loss of a parent or loved one.

The RGF supports a variety of Marie Curie projects related to young people, including:

Patient Rooms

Counselling and family rooms in the Marie Curie Glasgow, Hampstead and Solihull hospices have been funded by the Foundation. These warm, welcoming spaces are used by both hospice counsellors and by patients, their families and children. Bereavement counsellors spend time here with young people being cared for at the hospice and with well children during the process of a loved one’s terminal illness. Families use them to spend quality time together – doing simple things like eating as a family and cuddling up on the sofa, enables them to keep life as normal as it can be during one of the most stressful times of their lives - this is enormously important to children.

Funding nursing care

Grants have gone to Marie Curie to be spent on nursing care at home and in hospices for 16-25 year olds. This ensures young people can spend their last days in the place of their choice. Home nursing care allows young patients to spend their last days at home surrounded by family and friends and Marie Curie hospices provide around the clock medical care in a relaxed, caring environment.

Bereavement Counselling

Few life events have greater impact on a child than the death of someone they love. Children can cope with their grief much more effectively if they are helped to understand what has happened to their loved one, why it has happened and what it means for the future. Marie Curie Children and Young Person Support Workers use a range of techniques to encourage open communication in the family and help children understand what they are feeling. This is crucial to help guide them through the traumatic but necessary process of grieving.

Projects funded

Counselling and family rooms in the Marie Curie Glasgow, Hampstead and Solihull hospices have been funded by the Foundation. These warm, welcoming spaces are used by both hospice counsellors and by patients, their families and children. Click here to read more.