Creative Packs Cancer Charity

Creative Packs Cancer Charity was created by Charlotte Murphy during the lockdown of 2020. Its aim is to provide Creative Packs to young cancer patients in hospital, who due to their treatment face long periods of isolation. Crafts are a great way to keep your mind entertained and focused on something fun, so Charlotte started making creative packs for patients and they have been a great success! So far they have supported over 200 young cancer patients across teenage cancer units.

Coronavirus has hit the whole world hard, but the impact has been unimaginable for young people with cancer. Having treatment in hospital can feel scary, and during the pandemic, even more lonely with visitors restricted. Creative Packs Cancer Charity is on a mission to supply as many creative packs as possible to teenage cancer patients, to help with isolation, loneliness & mindfulness. Creative Packs Cancer Charity is a start-up charity that began at the start of the pandemic. Due to feedback & support from the patients, hospitals, and the wider community, it has now become a registered charity. 
 
Its founder had chemotherapy for two years when she was a teenager, so knows how isolating cancer can be in the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. This charity believes in the power of crafts when it comes to boosting mental well-being. It’s a great way to keep your mind entertained and focused on something fun. Each pack is unique. They include sewing kits, brain puzzles, crochet kits, lego, beautiful colouring books and more! Everything included in the packs is brand new and individually wrapped. 
 
Over the last year, they have supplied over 200 creative packs to The Royal Marsden Teenage Cancer Trust Unit (Sutton), St George’s TYA unit (Tooting) and QMC Teenage Cancer Trust Unit (Nottingham), and they’ve received incredible feedback from all hospitals and patients. 
 
The charity will use funds from the Matthew Good Foundation so it can continue its mission over the next 12 months. The funding will help them reach more Teenage Cancer Units across England. 

"It means so much to me to know this mission has been recognised and that we can support more teenage cancer patients. The funds will help us create and deliver more creative packs, we want to be able to achieve what we did last year and more! The funds will help buy items for the creative packs and scale the initiative across more Teenage Cancer Trust Units. We have heard from hospitals that they really struggle to finance arts and crafts and the donations they usually receive are for younger children, but not teenagers. We're here to change this."

Charlotte, Creative Packs Cancer Charity
"Having experienced cancer when she was a teenager, Charlotte knew that a challenging time would be made even more difficult for cancer patients during the lockdown. Thanks to the feedback from patients and hospitals, a lockdown idea has become a much-needed charity responding to the needs of teenagers receiving cancer treatment. Charlotte is incredibly passionate about making a difference and has ambitions to scale the charity to help teenager cancer patients all over the UK."
Michelle Taft
Executive Director, Matthew Good Foundation