Complementary therapies can help reduce the side effects of breast cancer treatment, support emotional wellbeing, and improve quality of life during and after treatment.
Through a clinical referral from the Breast Care Nurses, the Worcestershire Breast Unit Haven is able to fund a limited number of complementary therapy sessions for patients.
The charity funds up to £250 for each referred patient, enabling access to sessions in one of nine approved, evidence-based complementary therapies that may help alleviate side effects associated with treatment:
Patients are referred on to qualified, specialist practitioners, who are local to them, to arrange appointments directly.
The charity only works with practitioners who have been thoroughly vetted and who hold the appropriate qualifications, insurance, and registration with their relevant professional membership body.
https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/stories-and-media/booklets/cancer-and-complementary-therapies
Please speak to your Breast Care Nurse about any symptoms or side effects you are experiencing. They will assess your situation and advise whether a clinical referral for complementary therapy is appropriate.
'...[the therapist] is excellent. She explains everything about how and why things happen with lymph node drainage etc and this has helped immensely… I had my last session with her yesterday and, today I woke up without any pain or discomfort, this is the first day since September 2024 that that has happened!'
'... the first few times I didn’t feel any difference and then I felt things were working a little every appointment - and do you know… I haven’t had a single hot flush since, it’s incredible! I really can’t recommend them highly enough and I’m so grateful to WBUH to have been given the opportunity to go. Nobody actually tells you how expensive it is to have cancer... it’s a side many people don’t like talking about I’m sure, so as much as I would’ve looked at alternative treatments - there is no way I could’ve done it without the funding, so thank you!'
‘…I have greater range of shoulder movement and I can even sleep in a better position now as the implant feels a lot more comfortable.
The main change for me is that I no longer avoid looking in the mirror. The implant felt so alien to me that I just had no connection with it, and found it difficult to look at, or touch… This has helped me to accept the reconstruction as being part of me.’