The Irish Cancer Society is expanding its supports to address what it says are the “unmet needs” of patients with the illness.
The charity is unveiling new free services, which include a dietary and exercise programme, on Tuesday, which is World Cancer Day.
Its diet and exercise programme is aimed at improving cancer patients’ quality of life during diagnosis and means they can get specialised advice from an oncology dietitian. Patients get access to free exercise classes nationally.
A new welfare and support service is to help people facing the additional challenges cancer brings.
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It offers advice on issues such as social-welfare entitlements, medical-card applications, housing and mortgages, childcare and talking to employers about diagnosis.
ICS chief executive Averil Power said misinformation around diet and cancer was “rife” and she said it could be easy for someone who had just been diagnosed “to go down a rabbit hole of alleged cancer cures or cancer diets”.
She also said the society constantly heard from patients who were “struggling to navigate the financial and practical issues a cancer diagnosis brings”.
“Our welfare and supports team offer free, tailored advice to anyone who needs support on things like accessing financial and practical advice when going through cancer,” Ms Power said.
“None of our free, life-changing services would be possible without the incredible generosity of the public. We get just 5 per cent of our funding from the Government, so we rely on fundraising to fuel our work.
“We’re encouraging everyone to get involved and go all in this Daffodil Day to raise vital funds for cancer patients and their families”.
Daffodil Day, which is the society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, is on March 28th.
The services can be accessed by contacting the Irish Cancer Society support line on freephone 1800 200 700 or by email supportline@irishcancer.ie.
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