Careology and the Ella Dawson Foundation partner to help young people with cancer live better
We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Careology, the UK’s leading digital cancer care platform.
Building on our work with The Royal Marsden, which is home to one of the leading TYA cancer centres in Europe, we will be launching our partnership there to offer a combination of supportive services in addition to treatment.
When going through her own treatment, Ella identified limited resources available that are specifically designed to support the psychological, physical and holistic needs of young people dealing with cancer. By working with Careology, we will offer this support through its patient-facing app, surfacing Ella Dawson Foundation content to help young people navigate through cancer treatment and beyond.
As we continue to work together, we will grow our partnership to offer even more people these crucial resources across the UK. At a time when both incidence and survivorship rates are increasing, it has never been more urgent to ensure that everyone entering the system has access to the best supportive care possible.
If you’d like to find out more about the work we will being doing, please read this piece in @BBC News by @Grace Wood: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art... (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art...)
Careology and the Ella Dawson Foundation partner to help young people with cancer live better
[London: 16.09.24] Global digital cancer care company, Careology, and the Ella Dawson Foundation, the registered charity helping young people live well with cancer, join forces to offer holistic support to growing numbers of young people with the disease.
In the UK, 34 young adults in their late teens, twenties and early thirties are diagnosed with cancer every day - and this number is rising. According to Cancer Research UK, the 0 - 24 age group has seen a 22% increase in incidence rates since the early 2000s. However, dedicated wellbeing support is rarely tailored to the needs of any age group.
Careology has teamed up with the Ella Dawson Foundation to ensure that people living with cancer aged 18 - 30 can view personalised content to improve their wellbeing through its patient-facing app. They will have access to a range of other features including symptom and side effect monitoring, medication schedules and tracking, journaling and helpful articles promoted to them to help them self-manage their treatment at home.
Initially launching with The Royal Marsden, which has a leading centre for teenagers and young people with cancer, clinicians will also be able to see the data its patients enter onto the app to monitor how they are doing. If a symptom - e.g. nausea - is severe, care teams will be able to intervene before the problem becomes more complex.
Paul Landau, CEO of Careology, says: ‘Any cancer diagnosis is especially daunting for young people with lots to learn and remember, and keep on top of, with a schedule of seemingly endless appointments to attend. At Careology, we want to make sure everyone on the app feels better connected and has access to the right information at the right time for them. Bringing the Ella Dawson Foundation’s content onto the app means that we can help even more young people living and dealing with cancer.’
Alongside Careology’s content from Macmillan, Cancer Research UK, Maggie’s and the NHS, younger people will be able to read Ella Dawson Foundation content about managing their mental health, finding like-minded friends online, exercise and much more.
Natasha Dawson, founder of the Ella Dawson Foundation, says: ‘Through the two years of my sister, Ella’s treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia she saw the vital importance of wellbeing support, however found this rarely available and difficult to access. To be able to provide dedicated wellbeing support to young adults living with and beyond cancer is a huge driver for me and the Ella Dawson Foundation.
“By working with Careology and making our content for younger people available through its patient app, we will be able to reach more people who need us as they navigate their diagnosis and treatment. This age range has a unique set of needs in order to feel, move, eat and live well, through and beyond cancer. We, like Careology, want to make sure we reach every single person who could benefit from our support"
Careology’s app and holistic support from the Ella Dawson Foundation run in tandem with a person’s clinical treatment. By using the Caregiver feature, users will be able to share updates with friends and family about how they feel each day.
Amy Chilton, who was 23 when she was treated at the Royal Marsden, says: “Navigating appointments and managing symptoms can be overwhelming during such a challenging time, and Careology is an incredibly valuable tool for patients. While the support I received during treatment was exceptional, I found it really hard to find normality again once my treatment ended. Fortunately, I came across the Ella Dawson Foundation, which helped me regain my fitness and health through a variety of personal training sessions, yoga classes, and nutrition plans. Having an app like Careology to guide patients to information, support, and organisations such as the Ella Dawson Foundation, both during and after treatment, is an amazing idea. It makes these resources accessible to everyone and takes a lot of pressure off patients.”
For more information for digital cancer care, or to get in touch, please visit www.careology.health. For more information about young adult cancer wellbeing, please visit www.elladawsonfoundation.org.uk.
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