We’re pleased to present the latest edition of our CHECT InFocus Summer 2024 Magazine –  full of your stories as well as what we’ve been up to as a charity over the last few months.  This Summer edition of InFocus has been produced in both a digital and print format. View the plain text version of our Summer InFocus magazine: InFocus If you would like to receive InFocus in a different format, please email info@chect.org.uk. We hope you enjoy this latest edition. The CHECT Team. The post InFocus Summer 2024 – Plain Text Version first appeared on Childhood Eye Cancer Trust ..read more

The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust is a national charity that takes young people aged 8-24 on sailing and outdoor adventures to inspire them to believe in a brighter future living through and beyond cancer. When a young person gets the ‘all clear’, their whole world has changed. What happens after treatment can be as difficult as the treatment itself, if not even more so.  Because of cancer’s impact on their mental wellbeing, simply picking up where they left off before their diagnosis just isn’t possible for many young people. At this stage in life, cancer often leads to lower educational ..read more

We often feature our wonderful CHECT mums in our stories, and we feel it’s important to recognise those amazing dads out there who go above and beyond to support their families as well. For Father’s Day, we asked children (maybe with a bit of help) to nominate their dads for an honorary CHECT Champion Award. Congratulations to the awesome dads below who were nominated, each of you will receive a special CHECT Champion certificate! Stephen “Our daddy/dad is amazing.he works so hard for our family. We all love him so so much. Always here for us all. xxx He’s our world and more xxx”   ..read more

A five-year-old boy from Rhyl has received a prestigious award in recognition of the courage he has shown while battling against an extremely rare form of cancer. Ethan was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the retina of children predominantly under six-years-old, in November 2017 when he was only a few days old. Tests revealed that Ethan had tumours in both of his eyes. He underwent treatment (including chemotherapy) in London to save his life by reducing the size of those tumours which proved successful. However, he continues to undergo regular check-ups to ensure that th ..read more

Two brothers have received prestigious awards in recognition of the courage and bravery they displayed while one of them battled against an extremely rare form of cancer. In March 2022 Harry Hanlon from Sutton Coldfield was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the retina of children predominantly under six-years-old. At the time Harry was just two weeks short of his fifth birthday. The extent of the cancer in his left eye meant doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital had to remove the eye in order to save his life. Harry now wears an artificial eye and continues to have his ..read more

A 10-year-old boy from Leyland in Lancashire has received a prestigious award in recognition of the courage he has shown while battling against an extremely rare form of cancer. Samuel was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the retina of children predominantly under six years old, in 2014 when he was just 18 months old. Tests at the Royal Preston Hospital revealed that Samuel had a large tumour in his right eye. The extent of the cancer meant doctors at the specialist Birmingham Children’s Hospital had to remove the eye in order to save his life. Samuel now wears an artifici ..read more

We are thrilled to celebrate our 14 incredible runners who took part in the iconic TCS London Marathon on 21st April 2024, raising a fantastic £45,000 including Gift Aid. We are so proud of them, for dedicating the time and effort to train and fundraise for CHECT, resulting in all 14 of them crossing the finish line on the day. If you would like to join #TeamCHECT and take part in an event for us, why not have a look at our calendar of new events for this year. Have a look at our website www.chect.org.uk/other-ways-to-help/events or get in touch with Priyanka at fundraising@chec ..read more

A four-year-old boy from Harrow has received a prestigious award in recognition of the courage he has shown while battling against an extremely rare form of cancer. Junior was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the retina of children predominantly under six-years-old, in September 2023 when he was still only three-years-old. Initial tests at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London revealed that Junior had a large tumour in his left eye. The extent of the cancer meant doctors at The Royal London Hospital then had to remove the eye in order to save his life. In time, Junior – who su ..read more

CHECT PhD researcher Nicola O’Donnell recently organised a podcasting event in Birmingham for teens and young adults, as part of sharing the results of her research study. Nicola says: “Excitingly, I have received a lot of interest in this work and the first academic paper which summarises the findings has now been published in the British Medical Journal.” However, she also wanted to share these more widely. “For this reason, I recently got a group of retinoblastoma (Rb) survivors together and hired a podcast studio in Birmingham … for a video summarising the research findings. They also sat ..read more

We spoke to Nicola O’Donnell about her CHECT-funded research, ‘Understanding how having Rb affects how you think and feel’: Retinoblastoma is a rare eye cancer affecting 40-50 UK children a year. Although it is highly curable, this experience can leave some people feeling complex emotions, including worry, anger, or sadness. These feelings can occur when they are least expected, sometimes even many years after their diagnosis and treatment. At the moment there isn’t much targeted support to help teenage and young adult Rb survivors with these feelings, and we want to do something about this ..read more