In honour of World Cancer Day 2025, Dunn & Baker Solicitors would like to shed light on a local charity that is very important to the Exeter, and Devon, community, Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF).
WHO IS ELF?
Over 3,000 people are diagnosed with Leukaemia in the South West each year. Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF) is a charity that provides support to patients who attend the Haematology Centre for blood cancer at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (RD&E). This local charity was registered nearly 40 years ago in 1987 after people started to donate money to the Haematology centre. Since registration, ELF has provided compassionate and tailored support to families and patients affected by blood cancer through diagnosis, treatment, after treatment, at hospital, and in the local community.
WHAT DOES ELF DO?
ELF supports the thousands of patients and family members that go through these trying times and wishes to lighten the load as much as they can.
Comfort is a huge factor when having to go through treatment, so with the help of ELF, they have purchased televisions and fridges for the individual isolation rooms where patients can stay for months at a time whilst their immune systems are suppressed. As well as this, ELF has funded two building projects at the RD&E Hospital, including the Haematology Centre itself in 2003, but also the construction of a critical care unit in 2017. At the end of this ward, there is a private family suite which has a patient room, family room, and kitchen, allowing families to stay close to their loved ones at a time of need.
Physical comfort is not the only challenge that patients and families have to face, there is also the mental. ELF’s services also include counselling which started pre-COVID, but because of COVID, they had to move the counselling sessions outside of the hospital, which in the end turned out to be the best thing for them. Post 2021, ELF now has a centre for counselling sessions for both patients and family members, and they found that having this separate centre allowed patients and families to be in a more comfortable environment and helps to stop the spreading of infections. In 2024, they saw a 94% increase from the previous year with 103 referrals, showing how valuable this service is to the Haematology Centre.
Alongside the patients, ELF also supports the NHS team at RD&E Hospital. Due to the lack of funding for the NHS, they help the NHS team to provide better care and better outcome for local patients. ELF ensures to liaise with clinical staff to find out what help they can provide to the NHS staff, and patients, alongside equipment. ELF fully funded an ultrasound machine to help with finding veins and inserting cannulas. This was because, depending on the patient’s veins, they would have to go to different wards and departments, allowing for long waiting times and making them at risk of infection. Instead of this, ELF trained up the staff with the new ultrasound machine, saving patients hours of waiting and travelling while lessening the risks of infection.
ELF has also put in place a transport system for patients who: live far away and find it difficult to attend treatments; have difficulties with transport and parking costs; and, are too unwell and not physically fit to drive. ELF also have a partnership with South Gate Hotel to help with families and patients who are travelling as it allows them to have breaks so they can recover faster and do not have to travel all day.
There are many more facilities and support that ELF provide in addition to those we have described.
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT ELF?
Dan Pollard, Associate Solicitor in our Private Client Department, has personal experience of how cancer can affect a family and what amazing support a charity like ELF can provide. With this in mind, Dunn & Baker Solicitors is proud to be in partnership with ELF, and we wish to give something back to the charity and hopefully provide vital assistance to similar families in need. Since our partnership with ELF in 2022, we have been working with those being supported by ELF and offering free Will writing services and a 20% discount on any additional legal services required such as Lasting Power of Attorneys (LPAs) and Power of Attorneys (POAs), in hopes that this can ease some of the strain put on them.
Martin Justice (Associate Solicitor for Dunn & Baker’s Private Client Department) and Gary Moore (Development Manager for Exeter Leukaemia Fund)
FUNDRAISING
On 4th February 2025, for World Cancer Day, we will be holding a bake sale in our Exeter Office to promote ELF and fundraise for their incredible organisation. We welcome members of the public and clients to attend and buy a cake or two, or if you wish you can solely donate.
Keep an eye on our website or social media for future fundraising events for ELF, to continue supporting them in their incredible endeavour to help patients and families.
HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT ELF?
You can support ELF by visiting their website https://elfcharity.org.uk/ to spread awareness about Leukaemia and learn about ELF’s support. You are also more than welcome to do your own fundraiser for them, they have a wonderful page on different fundraising events and challenges which they are happy to help supply with any collection buckets, balloons, flags, or pens that you may need.
You can also kindly donate through their donation page, any donation to ELF is accepted gratefully: https://elfcharity.org.uk/donate
Thank you for your support.
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