Young Lives Vs Cancer- Our 2025 Chosen Charity

Today, 12 children and young people will hear the devastating news that they have cancer. When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer we know this doesn’t just impact their health, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart.

Playtime is stopped. Independence is taken. Confidence is stolen. It can result in years of missed education and careers put on hold just as they’re starting. It’s spending days desperately trying to navigate complex systems just to get basic support. It’s missing out on experiences and not getting the chance to enjoy new relationships. It’s watching countless opportunities pass by as debt begins to pile up. We believe that children should have time to learn and play outdoors, and we want to ensure that children thrive in life beyond cancer not just survive it.

The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical and that impact can be felt by the entire family. That’s why we exist.

Young Lives vs Cancer is the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity providing children, young people and their families with the emotional, financial and practical support they so desperately need during their darkest days.

I would like to share Esme’s story with you. Esme loves life, she’s a real people person, she makes friends everywhere she goes and everybody comments how she’s smiley, happy and loves doing things, meeting people, and chatting. She has a real positivity about her that people comment about when they meet her. However, in August 2021 when she was just three years old her parents found a lump on her back. They took her to the doctors and within 24 hours they were told the life shattering news that Esme had cancer. They were in and out of hospital for months. Esme couldn’t start school and she spent a lot of time away from her big sister Olivia.

Olivia was just 8 and the first question she asked her parents was ‘is Esme going to die?’ Esme parents said “It was a very scary time but you just fall into a routine, very quickly you put everything to one side as much as you possibly can and you get into a new routine of life like trying to keep Olivia our oldest daughter doing everything she’s normally doing, school all that kind of stuff, while getting Esme to her appointments.”

Esme had to go to hospital around Christmas time in 2021, so Lorna, the family's Young Lives vs Cancer Social Worker helped them arrange staying at CLIC House, one of our Homes from Home in Bristol, so Esme and Olivia got the chance to see each other and the whole family could be together too.
Staying at CLIC House was more than just a place to stay, it meant they could make Christmas memories together they might not otherwise have been able to have. Lorna was there throughout Esme’s treatment and also able to support Esme’s family by helping them to access financial support, to help with the costs of travel to and from the hospital.

Esmes parents summed up the support by saying “I think we might have got there [without her support] but I just think it would have been a struggle, the stuff like the DLA and blue badge, how else would we have known we were able to claim that? I suppose the doctors might have handed us a leaflet but to go through that whole process on our own would have been hard and i assume without it there would be a lot of parents who don’t get those benefits that don’t get the help that’s needed and I’m very thankful for Young Lives vs Cancer.”

I hope you will all be pleased to hear that Esme has now finished treatment and is in remission. She completed her stage 2 of swimming last year, as well as tried horse riding for the first time. She is doing well in school and has joined the Brownies. She loves ballet and has even performed on stage which she loved!

Each year we support over 7000 children, young people and their families and our services are needed right here in Bristol. In 2023/24 49 of our supported families were from Bristol and 110 were from Somerset.

Young Lives vs Cancer is the only charity in the UK with Specialist Social Workers who provide tailored support to children and young people with cancer, and their families. Our professional social care teams work with children and young people to limit the damage of cancer.

We support young cancer patients emotionally – building their resilience so they can continue to learn, regain their confidence and be inspired to think beyond cancer.
We work to remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise the child or young person’s wellbeing. We take the time to understand what matters most to them.

A childhood cancer diagnosis brings unexpected costs at a time when finances are already stretched. Things like being able to pay for fuel so that your child can get to hospital for vital treatment can be a huge worry to some families. To relieve some of the extra financial pressure, Young Lives vs Cancer offer financial grants to help families cover the immediate costs as well as ongoing costs associated with a cancer diagnosis. Specialist Social Workers are there to guide families with information about the Young Lives vs Cancer financial grants as well as supporting families with applications to access PIP and DLA. 109 financial grants were given to families within Bristol and Somerset in 2023/24.

We also have 10 Homes from Home across the UK and two of these are based in Bristol; Sam’s House and CLIC House. Our Homes from Home are a free place for families to stay for the entire time their child is going through cancer treatment. They’re located close to principal treatment centres, which are the Bristol Children’s Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary, helping families avoid the extra financial burdens of travel, accommodation and food costs. They keep young cancer patients and their family together and maintain a sense of home comfort and normality during a time when everything else around them is anything but normal.

In 2023/24 our Bristol Home’s from Home had a combined total of 244 family stays.

Young Lives vs Cancer stop at nothing to make children and young people’s voices heard and their unique needs understood, so they can get the right care and support at the right time, because children and young people with cancer deserve better.

We are delighted to be Bristol Law Society's President's Charity of the Year 2025, and we look forward to seeing you at the Bristol Legal Awards on 6th November!