YouCan Ireland to visit Recovery Haven

Cancer is a disease that doesn’t discriminate. Regardless of your age, gender or creed, when it decides to take hold, life as you know it changes forever. When this happens in early adulthood, where do you turn? With a severe lack of services specifically designed for young adults, it was evident that something needed to change, not only was there a need for support but also for a voice, so YouCan Ireland was established.

As we are a nationwide support network and want to be accessible to young adults in all parts of the country, YouCan Ireland is travelling around Ireland, hosting open days in cancer support centres nationwide during 2016. We will be hosting our next open day in Recovery Haven, 5 Haigs Terrace, Killerisk, Tralee, Co.Kerry on Saturday August 13^th, 2016 from 2pm-5pm. There will be a guest speaker, discussing issues experienced by young adults who have or have had cancer. It will also be an opportunity to meet the YouCan Ireland team and other young adults who have experienced a cancer diagnosis. All of the YouCan Ireland team know what it is like to receive a cancer diagnosis. We have been in the position of having cancer as someone in their 20s, 30s or 40s.

YouCan Ireland was founded in February 2015 by a group of volunteers who themselves have been diagnosed with cancer as young adults and who wished they had somewhere to turn when they heard the words ‘you have cancer’. YouCan Ireland is supported by the Irish Cancer Society and St. Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar and is in the process of registering as a charity with the Charity Regulatory Authority.

The purpose is simple; to provide a nationwide support system for young adults with cancer, advocate for consistent and age appropriate respectful care that supports young adults with a cancer diagnosis, educate the public and medical profession on the experiences of young adults with cancer, and to be the face of young adult cancer. YouCan Ireland is a nationwide service for young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s and their families to get that much needed support in their fight against cancer.