FOR over 18 years, Cancer Lifeline have been supporting people affected by cancer and their family members in the greater North Belfast area.
On Friday (May 14), the charity, based in Alliance Avenue in Ardoyne marked a new chapter in their history with the opening of a brand new extension to their original building thanks to funding provided from the Belfast Investment Fund via Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities.
Staff and founders welcomed Lord Mayor Alderman Frank McCoubrey and Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to the building for the official opening as the ribbon was finally cut following a delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bernie Montgomery, Chairperson of Cancer Lifeline with Belfast Mayor Frank McCoubrey and Minister for Communities Deirdre Hargey with staff and committee members TOGETHER: Cancer Lifeline committee members Gloria Matthews; Rosemary McGuigan; Breige Petticrew and Bernie Montgomery
The newly refurbished and extended premises is a welcoming, homely and state of the art cancer support organisation for the people of North Belfast and their family members impacted by cancer.
The building, which will now see the charity fit for purpose for the next phase of Cancer Lifeline’s work delivers a broad range of support services and programmes including counselling, complementary therapies, welfare benefits services, support groups and health and wellbeing programmes.
Bernie Montgomery, Chair and co-founder expressed her delight at the opening of the new extension.
“This new building is going to enable Cancer Lifeline to deliver more services throughout the greater North Belfast area,” she explained.
“We have grown so much from small beginnings 18 years ago and there really was not enough room anymore.
“As a non-profit organisation, there were financial concerns but we managed to secure funding from the Belfast Investment Fund via Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities.
“We now have more therapy rooms, counselling rooms and bigger rooms for nutrition, relaxation, stress and management and all the things found to help people live alongside their cancer journey.
“We have a lift now which is a massive thing for some of our patients with mobility issues.
“The reason why I started Cancer Lifeline was because of going through the system myself with a cancer diagnosis which was a very frightening experience for me.
“The new building and our facilities now feels like a house which is so important for cancer patients to feel comfortable in an environment. There is a real home-from-home environment here now.”
Due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the past fifteen months has been particularly challenging for many cancer patients.
During this time some clients were faced with the devastating news that their surgeries and /or cancer treatment had to be delayed. This impacted hugely on patients’ mental wellbeing.
In response, Cancer Lifeline were able to reorganize their support services to ensure they were doing everything they could to reach out to clients to ensure they felt supported and connected at a time when they needed it more than ever.
This included telephone counselling, telephone complementary therapy consultations, peer support, developing online video supports, linking clients to food banks and welfare benefits advice via partner organisations Advice Space and the North Belfast Advice Partnership, and detailed advocacy work.
Clients were contacted continuously to check in with them, ensure they were able to access services and make sure they felt connected during a very vulnerable time.
Over the past year, the charity received around 390 referrals from people affected by cancer, seeking out guidance and support. Cancer Lifeline were able to reach out and support them in some way.
“We were literally about to open the new building when the Covid-19 pandemic struck,” added Bernie.
“We had more people referred to us throughout the pandemic because other charities had closed.
“It affected our one-to-one services which is one of the main ethos of Cancer Lifeline that people could come and meet someone face-to-face when they have been diagnosed with cancer.
“We made contact with every single patient and assisted them in whatever help they needed.”
Presently, Cancer Lifeline are now delivering face to face counselling as part of a phased re-opening of services to clients and plan to open up their complementary therapy service in June ahead of a full re-opening in the autumn.
Cancer Lifeline are delighted that the years of hard work securing resources for cancer patients and their families has resulted in the North Belfast community now having a fantastic fit for purpose cancer support organisation aiming to support people in a real and practical way.
The management committee and staff extend their genuine thanks and appreciation to everyone involved in helping them achieve what they have to date, including all their generous funders, individuals, groups, local businesses and support organisations in the voluntary and community sector and statutory partners.
“We have been based at Alliance Avenue for 18 years now and there are still people, who got diagnosed in the next street who were unaware of our services,” concluded Bernie.
“We are on the doorstep of the community and there is nowhere anywhere that delivers the service we do for cancer patients.
“We appreciate that if you are affected by cancer, taking that first step to ask for some help and support can be difficult.”
To find out about how Cancer Lifeline may be able to support you please contact the charity via the following:
Cancer Lifeline
44 Alliance Avenue
Belfast BT14 7PJ
Tel- 02890 351999
Email: info@cancerlifeline.info
