We work with families, hospitals, and hospices across the UK supporting young people (aged 0-25) with terminal cancer.

Each year approximately 530 young people in the UK die from cancer and many more spend too much of their youth in hospital. For these young people and their families each moment matters. We want to support every single one of them.

The ways we help young people with cancer

Memory Making

We provide young people with terminal cancer, the opportunity to make memories that they and their family can cherish. Amongst hospital visits, feeling poorly and anxiety about what is to come, we want to brighten their day by allowing them to do whatever it is that they enjoy the most.

We want to enable these young patients to spend quality time with the people who matter while giving them a sense of control over their lives and normality amongst the chaos.

We have supported a range of things such as shopping sprees in a toy store, sweet sixteenth parties, a first and only smart suit and tie, personal firework displays, family outings, weddings, blessings and opportunities to say thank you.

Keepsakes

We help to create hand-made personalised keepsakes, for example:

* Jewellery with fingerprints of the patient for loved ones to cherish

* Glass hearts engraved with handwritten messages, for example a verse from a song or a favourite saying.

* Hand casting kits for families to create their own meaningful moment that can be painted or cast in bronze.

* A memory box filled with activities that help a young patient concentrate on their lives and loved ones, rather than their disease.

Creative Therapy

We provide activity boxes for young patients with cancer to use during periods of treatment. These are sent to hospitals throughout the country to provide a creative focus and essential distraction during hospital stays.

We are currently enhancing new Sibling Boxes. The contents will offer a talking point for the family to prepare for what lies ahead and give an opportunity for siblings to ask those difficult questions surrounding death and dying.

Get involved

We know you care about improving the lives of children and young people living with cancer as much as we do. If you want to become part of our force for change, there has never been a better time. 

There are so many ways to get involved in your local area, even from the comfort of your own home. Whether it’s through volunteering, donating, or creating a fundraising event, any contribution you can make to our cause will have a real and immediate impact on a patient with terminal cancer.  

Dragonfly Ball

Dragonfly Cancer Trust would like to formally invite you to our most glamorous night of the year. Join us on 8th July 2023 where we’ll be putting our memory-making skills to the test as we usher you into a magical evening which is surely not to be missed.  Every year, Dragonfly Cancer Trust hosts a black-tie ball, celebrating our amazing work alongside our even more amazing community. Guests on the night play a huge role in helping us to reach more young cancer patients across the country and we would love for you to be a part of this journey as well as making some amazing memories of your own. After a long hiatus over the pandemic, we are delighted that The Dragonfly Ball is back. From volunteers and

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