AN OUTREACH service for people going through cancer treatment is set to return to Okehampton thanks to nearly £300,000 in National Lottery cash.

The £290,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund will help FORCE Cancer Charity restart its programme of face-to-face services across Devon, including in Okehampton.

To do this, it will be using specialist volunteers such as retired GPs to work alongside its professional staff in providing outreach support, as it works to rebuild funding for its core services, such as outreach chemotherapy, after covid. These were withdrawn during the pandemic, as the charity’s income plummeted, in common with other charities, with fundraising events being cancelled.

‘Although this project alone won’t secure the future of the entire organisation, it will certainly contribute to the future sustainability of the charity,’ said FORCE chief executive Meriel Fishwick. ‘It represents a step on the road to recovery after the pandemic caused a massive upheaval for our services, especially our outreach projects.’

A key part of the project is to train and deploy ‘role specific volunteers’ with a background in healthcare to work with patients on FORCE education programmes to support people living with cancer long-term.

FORCE oncology support specialist Emma Ellis explained: ‘We have a wide range of volunteers with expertise and life experience that complement the services we have, both psychological and clinical. We have counsellors, clinical psychologists, GPs and nurses willing to donate their time in facilitating some of our groups. Our aim is to give the professional volunteers the extra skills that they might need to lead these groups alongside a member of staff.’

Retired GP Dr Geoff Roberts has joined the role specific volunteer team at FORCE.

He said: ‘With the NHS under such strain at the moment, clearly I’m happy to use my skills and give time to patients who, maybe in the hurly burly, don’t always have time to express their concerns, their worries and their needs.’

The lottery grant will enable FORCE to fund the training and supervision of volunteers and employ a counsellor, nurse and complementary therapist to work in its outreach locations as well as the sundry costs like admin, IT, marketing and travel.

Mrs Fishwick said the lottery funding would allow them to return to communities ‘we have had to withdraw from over the last two years’.

‘The impact of the pandemic on cancer services has meant that some people have missed curative treatment due to late diagnosis or had little or no support due to lockdowns and altered treatment plans. This has also affected families and children,’ she said.

‘We really want to get back out into our communities and offer face-to-face services in our outreach locations as soon as funds permit because we know that FORCE has never been needed so much.’