By Pamela McGowan Health reporter

Last updated at 09:37, Tuesday, 06 November 2012

A support group is launching its own grant-giving scheme to help people suffering from blood cancers.

Ashleigh Hunter, Amy Ellams, Melanie Burns and, back, Daniel Turner and Stephen Harding did the Cumbrian Run to raise funds for the group

Blood Buddies, the Carlisle-based self-help group, has been steadily fundraising since its creation almost two years ago. It is now launching a scheme that will allow patients or family members of those with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancer conditions in north Cumbria to apply for a slice of funds.

The group’s leaders and members hope the scheme will help alleviate worries many patients and families have as they battle to overcome life-threatening conditions.

Chairman Beverley Francis-Green, of Kirklinton, near Carlisle, said: “Our members already know how hard it is to cope with everything that is going on when you’ve been told you’ve got something like leukaemia.

“And you don’t want to have to worry about things like how you’re going to be able to pay for the family food shopping if you’re spending money on hospital visits or how you are going to afford a new washing machine if yours breaks. We want to be able to help solve some of those problems that may arise so people can concentrate on their treatment.

“We also hope that it will make more people aware of our group and that it is not just for those who have been diagnosed. It is for family members too.”

The group meets on an informal basis once a month and goes on trips. The Blood Buddies group recently received a £1,000 donation, raised by five people who completed the Great Cumbrian Run in October.

The runners were Ashleigh Hunter, Amy Ellams, Melanie Burns, Daniel Turner and Stephen Harding.

A few days later more than £300 was raised at a coffee morning held by a patient at his home in Currock.

The group’s next monthly meeting will be held next at the Auctioneer, at Rosehill, Carlisle, at 7.30pm.

There will be a speaker from the Chernobyl Children’s Project UK charity, which provides recuperative holidays in the UK for about 250 children from Belarus every summer.

The next Blood Buddies fundraiser will be a race night on Saturday, November 17 at Carlisle Conservative Club on Spencer Street.

For details of events or meetings call secretary Angela Docherty on 01228 814511.

First published at 09:26, Tuesday, 06 November 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk