The Care Plus Group Charitable Trust has recently donated £100 to the Macmillan Living with and Beyond Cancer team, as they continue to support people living with cancer across the area.
The donation will allow the team to provide a 6-week virtual cooking programme to patients across the Macmillan Living with and Beyond Cancer caseload, palliative care caseload and hospice wellbeing caseload.
The programme will be delivered virtually via Zoom from St Andrew’s Hospice kitchen and will include an educational session about nutrition and cooking, and a practical session delivered by the Support Worker at Macmillan Living with and Beyond Cancer. The sessions will deliver key messages around healthy eating from Public Health England’s Eatwell Guide, focusing on promoting 5-a-day, and the importance of eating well with a cancer diagnosis.
Haley Jones, Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist for Macmillan Living with and Beyond Cancer, said: “Thank you to Care Plus Group Charitable Trust for funding the virtual cooking sessions. The grant will be a huge help to support our patients as we know that people living with and beyond cancer need support with diet and nutrition. During and after cancer treatment patients often struggle with change in taste, smell, weight loss or gain due to chemotherapy, and they may not be able to eat the foods they did before due to surgery.
“The sessions will be delivered by our Support Worker, who is also a trained chef with previous experience in healthy eating as a community food worker for the 5-a-day initiative. Many patients have found during the pandemic that food and a healthy, balanced nutritious diet has become something to focus on, to help with their mental health. If the initial six-week programme is a success we plan to deliver a regular programme, three or four times a year.”
Neil Cartwright, Trustee of Care Plus Group Charitable Trust, said: “As a charity we exist to support individuals or groups with funds or equipment that will benefit the health and wellbeing of community members across North East Lincolnshire. We were very happy to support the application for the virtual cooking programme from the Macmillan Living with and Beyond Cancer team, to benefit people living with cancer across the community.
“We are delighted to be able to be a part of the journey and provide ongoing support and encouragement to those in need, especially throughout what has been a troubling time during the pandemic. We would encourage anyone with a project that could make a difference to their local community to explore how the Charitable Trust could help them.”
To date, The Care Plus Group Charitable Trust has provided more than £93,000 to more than 90 community projects across North East Lincolnshire since its inception in 2016.
Further information about the Care Plus Group Charitable Trust and how to apply for funding is available at https://www.careplusgroup.org/charitable-trust/