Cancerbackup's local centres provide face to face information and support for anybody affected by cancer, including cancer patients, their families and friends. They are usually based in a hospital providing cancer services. You can drop in to a local centre or telephone the cancer information specialist based there.

Cancer Information Specialists

Each local centre is staffed by a cancer information specialist, who has experience of looking after cancer patients, and receives on-going training and support from Cancerbackup. All of them offer information and support backed up by free Cancerbackup booklets and factsheets for people with cancer, their families and friends. The local centre staff have access to the full resources of Cancerbackup, which include a library run by resource staff, an extensive cancer information database and the experience of other cancer information specialists. 

Through each local centre, people can also contact other local organisations and support groups. Visitors to the local centres can access the Internet for information with assistance by the nurse to help them find the information they are seeking. The centres have open access for everyone, including health professionals.

Please see the information about the individual local centres in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, The Christie Hospital, Ipswich Hospital, Jersey, The London Clinic and University Hospitals in Coventry and Nottingham for more details of the service provided by the cancer information specialists.

The Partnerships Unit

Alison Boyd is the Senior Cancer Information Nurse Specialist (Local Centres). Her role includes the line management of the local centre staff with initial training, on-going support and professional development, as well as quality assurance of the service provided by them. For example, she runs a journal club using teleconferencing, enabling the staff to discuss recent developments in cancer and share their expertise with each other.

Elizabeth Lodge is the Partnership Manager with overall responsibility for the local centres, in particular for managing the relationships with the NHS and the independent sector.

If you are a health professional interested in having a Cancerbackup cancer information centre locally, then please contact Elizabeth Lodge, Partnerships Manager on tel: 020 7920 7258 or email: elodge@cancerbackup.org