Young Lives vs Cancer’s new strategy sets out a vision for a better future for children and young people with cancer

Young Lives vs Cancer has today (Tuesday 17 September) published its ambitious strategy The time is now which will guide the charity as it works towards the North Star – a collective vision for a better future for children and young people with cancer and their families.

In 2022, Young Lives vs Cancer, Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, and Teenage Cancer Trust came together to fully understand the experiences and needs of children and young people with cancer. Supported by Dartington Service Design Lab, they carried out an in-depth programme of qualitative and quantitative research. This research has been used to create the North Star, which was launched in June 2024.

The North Star is a vision for the whole system and an entire transformation of the future of cancer care for children and young people. It’s big and bold, and will require all those who are a part of the system to play their part.

The time is now: our 2024/27 strategy is built around four long-term ambitions which will guide Young Lives vs Cancer’s work role in achieving the North Star. It’s a bold strategy that is vital for children and young people with cancer.

• Continue to be a major service delivery provider: offering high quality, impactful psychosocial support to children and young people with cancer and their families.
• Shape the system: working with others to become architects of change and holding those in power to account.
• Gather and share evidence and information: forming a wealth of knowledge about the experiences of children and young people with cancer and their families, and using it to inspire and steer change.
• Enhance and improve resources: from funding and capacity within the system to the amount of time dedicated to supporting children and young people with cancer, we’ll work to make sure they get more.

Rachel Kirby-Rider, Chief Executive at Young Lives vs Cancer said: “This is our most ambitious strategy to date, but it needs to be. We all know the last few years have been an incredibly challenging period of time, and the needs of children and young people with cancer and their families have changed dramatically post pandemic. I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved in the past few years, but now is the time to make vital and ground breaking change happen, and we’re more than ready.

“The North Star is a bold vision for a better future for children and young people with cancer, and our 2024/27 strategy lays out how we at Young Lives vs Cancer will contribute to making it happen. We’re looking forward to playing our part, and working together with Teenage Cancer Trust, Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, and Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, and other partners to create this much needed change for children, young people, and their families.”

Read The time is now: our 2024/27 strategy to find out more about our ambitious plans and transforming the future of cancer care and support.

ENDS

Notes to editors

For more information, a spokesperson interview, or images, please contact Alison Millar, Media and Communications Manager at Young Lives vs Cancer on 07775 723 755 or email alison.millar@younglivesvscancer.org.uk

About cancer in children and young people
Today, 12 more children and young people in the UK will hear the devastating news that they have cancer. Treatment normally starts immediately, is often given many miles from home and can last for up to three years. Although survival rates are over 80%, cancer remains the single largest cause of death from disease in children and young people in the UK.

About Young Lives vs Cancer
When a child is diagnosed with cancer life becomes full of fear, for them and their family. Fear of treatment but also of families being torn apart, overwhelming money worries, of having nowhere to turn to, no one to talk to.

Young Lives vs Cancer is the charity that helps children and young people (0-25) and their families find the strength to face whatever cancer throws at them. The charity’s social workers offer specialist, empowering support, its Homes from Home offer families a free place to stay nearby to the child’s hospital and grants help families to navigate the costs of cancer. We’ve been there before. We’ll face it all, together.

For more information visit www.younglivesvscancer.org.uk

Note to sub editors
Always use our name in full: Young Lives vs Cancer and write it with only the Y, L and C capitalised. But don’t capitalise ‘vs’.

‘Young Lives vs Cancer’ should be not be abbreviated – it’s not “Young Lives” for short, nor “YLvC”