Cancer support centre in Cornwall announces expansion plans to meet rising demand
The Cove Macmillan Centre at Treliske says its numbers are continuing to rise
Last updated 2nd Nov 2021
The Cove Macmillan Cancer Support Centre has announced plans to expand to help meet rising demand.
The site, based at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, offers support and services for people affected by cancer.
Bosses say that before the centre was built five years ago cancer patients and their loved ones in Cornwall had nowhere to go post-diagnosis.
Now it offers somewhere to sit while loved ones receive treatment, a place to retreat after diagnosis, and a team of experts from physio to counselling.
The support centre saw 1,000 people come through its doors the week before closing for the first lockdown last year and demand has been rising since.
Now as it celebrates its 5th birthday (2nd November) bosses have revealed plans for two new therapy rooms to help meet that rise in demand for services.
Cove centre manager, Nicky Lampshire, told us: "After a successful five years we're looking to expand to provide more therapy rooms and meet that rise in demand for services. Macmillan have funded an additional counsellor and we have charitable funding to provide complimentary therapies. A feasibility study's been done and we're looking to build two extra rooms up in the roof and that will allow us to offer those extra services.
"We have over 1,500 referrals per year to the psychology and counselling services are we're seeing that go up, and it's about the same for the physiotherapy as well, so for all our services the demand has increased. Before Covid we had about 1,000 people through the door in the week before lockdown and we know that's been increasingly going up.
"We're hoping to start the build in March, we're sorting out the funding, it's going to be charitable funding, and once we know the project costs we will hopefully start in March and be finished by July."
You can find out more about The Cove Macmillan Cancer Support Centre here.