Fundraising single launched to support #KindnessVsCancer campaign
Added: (Thu Feb 03 2022)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
A mother living with cancer has called for people to get behind a fundraising song Hope Engulfs Us, which aims to raise money for her KindnessVsCancer campaign.
Laura Kendrick, 42, found out she had stage 4 bowel cancer in 2020, and it was during her diagnosis and subsequent treatment where she experienced first-hand a lack of compassion from her cancer health care teams.
Treated more like a statistic rather than a human being, Laura was often delivered news about her illness in a very cold way. On many occasions she felt written off by her health care provider thanks to the use of negative language, which severely impacted her mental health and left her without hope.
This prompted Laura, who is HR Transformation Lead for NHS England and NHS Improvement’s South East region, to kick start her #KindnessVsCancer campaign and raise at least £50,000 to fund training for oncology teams across the NHS.
Laura wants the training to focus on ensuring health care teams understand the critical importance of compassion and empathy towards patients, and how it’s vital that hope remains during diagnosis, treatment and beyond. It will also cover the role of humanity in cancer care and the significance of mind-body connection.
As part of the fundraising drive for #KindnessVsCancer, Laura’s close friend, singer songwriter Sion Whiley, has written and recorded Hope Engulfs Us - a song based on Laura’s experiences as a cancer patient.
To help create the lyrics for Hope Engulfs Us, Laura spent time having moving conversations with fellow patients, who helped describe the trauma and heartbreak of a diagnosis. These people also felt, like Laura, that the cancer services they received often lacked empathy.
Laura shared these words with Sion who went on to write the song, which aims not only to raise money but push home the importance of continued kindness, compassion and empathy in cancer care.
As the song’s lyrics go “All I have is hope. Please don’t crush my hope”.
Laura said:
“Our fundraising song Hope Engulfs Us encompasses the fact that hope is everything to a cancer patient and can be a lifeline in the darkest of times.
“I have such admiration for my colleagues working within the NHS, but it’s a huge system and the mechanistic approach to cancer care is simply not good enough for patients.
“Whilst I have experienced some excellent care, unfortunately that has been limited and my experience overall has been challenging. At times, the interaction I’ve had with health care professionals has broken my soul and deeply impacted my mental health.
“I'm passionate about using my experience as both a senior professional in the NHS and a cancer patient to revolutionise and transform the current approach to cancer care in this country.
“That’s why I started the #KindnessVsCancer campaign, to ensure that health care professionals get the training they need to treat cancer patients with kindness, compassion and provide them with much needed hope.
“It would be amazing to get Hope Engulfs Us in the charts to help us raise as much money as possible and achieve our goal!”
Hope Engulfs Us is out now, and Laura and Sion are encouraging everyone to purchase, download or stream the song, which is available on most major music platforms.
All proceeds from the song will go straight to the #KindnessVsCancer campaign and help transform services for cancer patients. Donations can also be made to the campaign directly via Just Giving.
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Notes for editors
#KindnessVsCancer is a fundraising campaign started by Laura Kendrick that is focussed on raising at least £50,000 to deliver training to oncology teams across the NHS. This training will introduce an approach to patient care which places compassion and empathy at the heart of staff/patient interactions, from diagnosis through treatment and beyond.
The campaign also aims to highlight the connection between the mind and body and contextualise this in relation to the mental health of cancer patients and the disease’s physiological impact on their bodies.
For more information about the #KindnessVsCancer campaign and Laura’s story, please visit the Kindness Vs Cancer website
Hope Engulfs Us is a fundraising song written and recorded by singer songwriter Sion Whiley and includes backing vocals from Izzy Adams and Barry Newman. The video for the song can be viewed on YouTube.
Buy, download or stream ‘Hope Engulfs Us’ via these platforms:
• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Amazon Music
Press enquiries
For further information, please contact:
Lauren Hammond
laurenhammondcopywriting@gmail.com