"My son's treatment"

We do not live in the local area, so we only attended Edinburgh when my son was first diagnosed for the initial treatment block and then when there were some serious complications, otherwise we are treated at our local hospital. 

My child has stayed twice in the Lochranza ward during his cancer treatment and although we were there under extremely stressful circumstances, I only have positive things to say about our time there. The staff who work within the ward are just lovely, they took exceptionally good care of my son while being so friendly and understanding. They obviously all enjoy working there and it shows with a great atmosphere within the ward.

During our time there we had quite a bit of contact with the Teenage Cancer Trust via Conor and Danisha. Their support was invaluable. Danisha spent a lot of time helping me fill out the forms to apply for the disabled child allowance and a blue badge for our parking. As my son has just been diagnosed, I was so stressed and upset that I would not have managed to complete these massive forms on my own, I was extremely grateful for Danisha’s help.

And we have Conor who my son had lots of contact with during his stay. Conor was extremely important to both my son and myself. He took the time to chat, to discuss concerns, he is so knowledgeable, and easy to talk to. He spent lots of time in the snug playing games with my son, and chatting away. I know if my son had any concerns he would have been happy to speak to Conor, he became a good friend to both of us. 

He was there when I cut my son’s hair off offering practical help and then took him  out of the room to play some Xbox games to take him mind off things. I think if Conor hadn’t been such a regular presence on the ward, my son would have sat in his room, whereas he ended up spending quite a lot of time in the snug and sometimes out in the garden which was great to see. 

The contact with TCT has continued, my son regularly meets kids from other areas through  the TCT activities that Connor arranges and has built a small friend group of other kids with cancer. This is hugely important.

TCT  also provide support to parents, I know I can phone Conor for  advice which I have done a couple of times.

I only have one area which I think could be improved. My son was diagnosed and taken to Edinburgh over a bank holiday and because everything was closed and there were no support staff working, I remember feeling utterly bewildered, lost and isolated. We were a long way from home, didn’t have a support system in Edinburgh and really we didn’t know what was going on, the diagnosis we had received had been absolute shock. When everything reopened on the Tuesday and everyone went back to wok it was much better but those first few days were awful. 

Overall Lochranza and TCT were amazing with great facilities ( apart from the Wi-Fi which was awful!) and fantastic staff who helped make a horrendous situation so much more bearable. 

Thank you