Find your Sense of Tumour

By Cat Austin and Becky Peace

'Find Your Sense of Tumour' is a UK national conference organised by the Teenage Cancer Trust, and aimed at teenagers and young adults who have had, or are currently going through, treatment for cancer. This residential weekend is held at the Centre Parcs holiday village in Nottingham, and consists of two days of talks, presentations and showpieces delivered by young people, health professionals and guest speakers. There is also plenty of free time to socialise and there are a wide variety of activities and workshops on offer.

As well as giving young people a chance to get together, the conference has even helped to make changes happen within the UK National Health Service. Every year the conference includes a session with handsets where the audience are asked questions which are answered by pressing a button – a bit like in 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'. In the past few years the information collected in this session has been given to the National Cancer Action Team, who have then used it when writing important guidance for the treatment of young people with cancer.

Becky Peace is a 16-year old patient at the St James’s Hospital Teenage and Young Adult unit in Leeds, England. This is what she had to say about the conference.

“In October 2008, I attended my first ever Sense of Tumour conference at Centre Parcs in Nottingham. I took my close friend Katie with me too. We both thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, especially at night, doing quizzes and the disco. Also the ‘Grease’ night was really good, dressing up and munching on popcorn and sweets while watching the film.

Most of the talks throughout the day were also interesting, especially the people who had been through it, sharing their real emotional experiences with us. It was reassuring listening to them, knowing they are fully better now and carrying on with their lives. We also enjoyed answering the questions on the screen using our keypads, and it was really interesting to see all the statistics at the end. I was shocked at some of the answers though. We also had a fun time swimming and both thought the food was excellent, a nice selection, so we could choose what we wanted.

It was also really good to meet up with friends I had made during my stay in hospital and to catch up with all the news. The accommodation was nice and cosy and it was good to have free time where you could just relax and put our feet up. Overall we had a great weekend!”