Chatworld for cancer patients

Feb 11 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

An exciting new digital-age project is being launched by The Laura Crane Trust, the Huddersfield-based charity that works to support teenagers and young people with cancer. Called Chatworld, it will offer a virtual environment in which patients can share their experiences and make new friends. Hilarie Stelfox reports

FOR young people with cancer, life can be lonely and frightening. Because there are only 22 hospitals in the entire country where treatment is available to them, teenage patients frequently have to spend weeks or months away from home, friends and family.

No-one know this better than Jacquie Roeder, the mother of Huddersfield teenager Laura Crane, who died at the age of 17 from multiple cancers.

“When Laura was ill one of the first things she asked me was whether I could find some more young people with cancer that she could talk to. She didn’t want to be with older people she wanted to be with other teenagers,’’ says Jacquie, who founded the Huddersfield-based charity, The Laura Crane Trust, to fund research into the cancers that affect young people, and support young patients through the ordeal of suffering from a life-threatening disease that more commonly strikes older people.

“We hear this again and again and again.

“A lot of kids have to go a long way from home for treatment and because their friends find it difficult to visit and they may be on children’s wards or adult wards their peer support is missing.’’

Although the bulk of the money raised by the trust goes to research cancers suffered by 13 to 24-year-olds, the charity also tries to support young patients in other ways. It provides recreational equipment in hospitals, gifts at Christmas and has paid for an activities co-ordinator to work in the teenage ward at St James’ Hospital, Leeds – among other projects.

The organisation is now poised to launch a digital age project to enhance the lives of young cancer sufferers.

“We’ve given a lot of thought as to how we could give them a way to talk to each other and have come up with the idea of a visual chat room. We call it Chatworld,’’ explained Jacquie.

Harnessing the latest digital technology, of which most teenagers and young adults are willing and able users, Chatworld will provide a virtual environment for cancer patients to meet, share views and make new friends.

It was, says fund-raising manager Pam Thornes, the brainchild of Phil Mundy of games company Creative North, which has its offices adjacent to the trust’s HQ in the Creative Lofts, Northumberland Street.

Creative North is a Laura Crane Trust supporter and designer of the charity’s website, through which Chatworld will be accessed by users once it is up and running.