Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust

The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust is a registered charity[1] that supports young people aged 8–24 to rebuild their confidence after cancer.

Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust
TypeRegistered Charity
IndustryCharity
Founded2003
Key people
  • Ellen MacArthur (Patron)
  • Frank Fletcher (CEO)
  • Richard Butcher (Chair of Trustees)
  • Laura Davis (Operations Manager)
WebsiteOfficial website

For many young people simply picking up where they left off before their diagnosis isn't possible. Through a range of sailing and adventure trips, young people rediscover the confidence to positively embrace their futures. The impact of cancer on independence, education,[2] employment,[2] emotional wellbeing[3] and a young person's relationships with friends and family is huge. Many young people are also left living with a range of long-term physical effects.

The charity has bases in Cowes on the Isle of Wight and Largs on Scotland's West Coast. The organisation receives no government support and all the activities it offers are free.

History

In 2000 Dame Ellen MacArthur DBE sailed with A Chacun Son Cap,[4] a French charity for children with cancer and leukaemia. Inspired by the incredible impact sailing had on helping those children rediscover themselves in the confusing aftermath of cancer, and by their courage, spirit and humour, Ellen launched the 'Ellen MacArthur Trust' for young people aged 8–18 in Cowes in 2003.[5]

The inaugural Trust trip sailed out of Cowes on 20 July 2003, with five young people from Great Ormond Street Hospital. The following week a group from Southampton General Hospital sailed too.

In 2005, the Trust was named an official charity of the Round the Island Race and first Trust crew took part in the iconic race. This was significant as it was the first time that young people, who had previously sailed with the Trust in recovery from cancer, were invited back.

Young people being able to return year-on-year would become a core element of the Trust providing long-term support, not just one-off trip experiences, and in 2007, Essex Outdoors Bradwell hosted the Trust's first residential adventure activities trip as part of what became known as the 'Return to Sail' programme.

A name change to the 'Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust' followed in 2010, the same year that the charity started to support young people aged 18–24 for the first time. This was important because young people in this older age group face different challenges to children after treatment.

With the Trust now working with every young person's principal treatment centre in the UK, a second base in Largs was opened in 2013, thanks to the support of players of People's Postcode Lottery.[6] By 2019, no fewer than 2,400 young people from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had been supported in rebuilding their confidence after cancer.

How the Trust makes a difference

First time trips

Every young person who is supported by the Trust comes sailing for the first time on a four-day trip, either around the Solent from Cowes or on the Firth of Clyde from Largs.

Being on a boat not only provides the perfect escape and the chance to enjoy an outdoor experience that is completely the opposite of being cooped up in hospital, but each young person can test themselves and open up in a safe and supportive environment, often for the first time.[7] They live, sleep and eat on board, getting involved in every part of boat life, including cooking, washing up and cleaning the toilets.

The atmosphere is so positive, focusing on what each young person can do, not what they can't. Self-perceptions are changed and the young people are given permission to be well again. Parents also gain confidence from seeing their child flourish away from home. All logistics are taken care of – the young people travel to either Cowes or Largs with others from their hospital so before they even arrive they get to know each other.

In 2019 the Trust will run 16 first time trips for under and over 18 groups, with up to 30 young people taking part in a single trip.

Return to sail

The key element to the Trust providing long-term support for as a long as young person needs it, the Return to Sail programme has grown from the Round the Island Race and one residential week in 2007 to 15 different sailing and adventure activity trips spread across the county in 2019.

Longer cruising sailing trips take place in the Solent, Scotland and on the East Coast, while the adventure activity trips give the young people the chance to enjoy a variety of different activities over a week, from dinghy sailing to abseiling, high ropes, kayaking, cycling and even surfing! These residential trips take place at Essex Outdoors Bradwell, Waterpark Lakeland Adventure Centre on Coniston Water, Outdoor Adventure in Bude, Cornwall, and for the first time in 2019, the Hollowford Centre in Derbyshire's Peak District.

Because of the Return to Sail opportunities, the young people get the sense of being part of something special and they look forward to coming back and doing it all again every year. These ongoing relationships, both with the Trust and the friends they have made over many different trips, are crucial in a young person being able to picture a bright future and having the increasing confidence to pursue that future. 30% of young people have attended more than four trips.[8]

Widening access

Since 2016, young people under 18 with more severe mobility issues, or who don't yet have the confidence to go sailing, have been canal boating instead. It's had such an impact, this year over 18s will cruise the waterways too. Thanks to a partnership with CanalAbility, the young people enjoyed five days cruising through the Essex and Hertfordshire countryside, enjoying a slower pace of life. A canal boat feels slightly more contained and stable than a yacht. Young people do the locks, wind up the paddles and push open the lock gates. They helm the boat for periods of time and do line work as well building their confidence of being on the water.

Return to volunteer

Once a young person turns 18 they can apply to become a Trust volunteer. How do you put young people at ease at a time when their confidence is low and the prospect of doing a new activity away from home is daunting? Have people there who know exactly what they are going through. Having the chance to interact with others at different stages of recovery is vital in a young person seeing there is life after cancer. That's why young people, who were themselves supported by the Trust in recovery coming back to volunteer, is so powerful.

To be around young people who are now healthy, confident, enjoying life and looking ahead to positive futures when they too were once racked by the same fears, doubts and shyness, is very aspirational for a young person on a first time trip. For the volunteers, knowing they can help another young person, simply by understanding and communicating with them in a way few others can, is very rewarding too. It helps them continue their own recovery with the Trust whilst also supporting the younger ones or those who have more recently finished treatment.

On average each trip has three volunteers who first sailed with the Trust in recovery, and the Trust now has trips crewed entirely by volunteer young people, including some of who have gained formal qualification to be skippers and mates.

Siblings support

Brothers and sisters can be badly affected by the long-term illness of a sibling. So for the first time in 2018, 23 siblings of young people in recovery had the chance to enjoy a special experience all of their own at Bradwell. Waterpark in the Lake District hosts the siblings in 2019.

Impact

The Trust has three priority outcomes for young people:

  1. Regaining Confidence - overcoming the struggle to maintain a sense of personal worth to regain control over life and feel happy and secure.
  2. Ability to plan for the future - progressing beyond reliance on parents/carers, through survivors' guilt, to realise the confidence to consider life's next chapter.
  3. Get back into education or employment - breaking perceived barriers to success in education and employment.

The young people have fun, they adventure together and achieve, overcoming their fears, changing their self-perception and feeling important, and because they socialise with others like them they feel like they belong, are more positive, don't feel judged, feel their anxiety reduce and start to think differently about themselves and what they are capable of.

As a result, young people are more...[9]

  • Happy - young people experience a positive change in perspective on their illness and life. Fun is important, the trips are life changing and an escape from daily life. 91% of parents say their child is happier.
  • Confident - confidence is enhanced through a new awareness of abilities and a change in self-perception with feelings of self-assurance and self-belief. Over 92% of young people say they are more confident.
  • Independent - parents observe children being happy away from home and family and doing things on their own. Young people get a sense of normality and not feeling different. Over 95% of parents say their child gained independence.

References
  1. Charity Commission. Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, registered charity no. 1096491.
  2. Sargent, CLIC (2013). "No teenager with cancer left out - the impact of cancer on young people's secondary school education" (PDF). CLIC Sargent.
  3. Sargent, CLIC (2017). "Hidden Costs – The mental health impact of a cancer diagnosis on young people" (PDF). CLIC Sargent.
  4. "A chacun son cap -". www.achacunsoncap.com. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  5. "Ellen MacArthur - Official Website". ellenmacarthur.com. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  6. "Dame Ellen's Scots charity sets sail". 5 July 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  7. Roberts, J (2014) Sailing as an intervention to enhance psychosocial wellbeing in children and young adults treated for cancer. University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine (Cancer Sciences: Child Health and Human Development), May 2014
  8. Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust: Five-Year (2014-2018) Impact Report for People’s Postcode Lottery
  9. Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust Inspire - Issue 10 (2019)
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