Ms Gemma Fort:

It does appear that when people are involved in having surgery and their treatment, there is a very structured nature to that because they have appointments and follow-up checks. It is when that active treatment ends that they can often feel very vulnerable because that suddenly is not there as a point of reassurance or contact. That is when we do see that people look for other support within the community. One of the things we pride ourselves on is our connections within our local communities because people come to us for particular support, but if we see there is a more appropriate service, we try to refer them on so that they are connected within their community. We do a lot of work with family resource centres. We link in with the healthcare professionals in palliative care or oncology. They refer to us, but equally, if someone comes in to us and we feel there may be an issue for them health-wise, we would refer them back to their oncology nurse because we do not provide medical treatment. We very much complement the medical model. There is a recognition that both of us have an important role to play in somebody's cancer journey.