Summary and Background
Tuam Cancer Care provides emotional, psychological and practical support to people with a cancer diagnosis and to their families. All services are provided free of charge, and confidentiality is assured. Tuam Cancer Care is a Full member of the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) “Alliance of Cancer Support Centres and Services” and fully comply with their best practice guidelines. Tuam Cancer Care is a registered charity. In 2024 we relied on donations and fundraising to cover 80% of the costs of running the support services.
Tuam Cancer Care conducted an organisational survey in April 2025. It was the first such review conducted in a number of years. A number of changes have occurred over the last number of years, not least the COVID pandemic, which has resulted in us changing how we provide some of our support services. We have also seen a change in the type of client presenting for support. National Cancer Registry Ireland has been predicting growth rates in the number of cancer diagnosis each year, along with an increase in survivorship statistics and while we in Tuam Cancer Care were very much aware of those reports, in practice we have seen younger people presenting for support due to a cancer diagnosis, which we did not expect. Their needs may be different from our previous client base in that they often continue working during their treatment, they often have young families and may also be caring for older relatives. We felt it was important to check in with the clients to ensure that we use our limited resources to align our support services with where they will have the biggest impact.
Overview of the survey results:
We were delighted that 163 people responded to our survey request. Of these, 51% were current clients and a further 22% were former clients of Tuam Cancer Care. The remaining respondents were a mixture of Support Volunteers (7%), Staff/Therapists/Facilitators (4%), Fundraising Volunteers & supporters (9%) and people that described themselves as “None of the Above” (7%). 19% of the respondents were aged from 40 – 50 years of age, 40% were aged 50 – 65 years of age, and 37% were over 65%. 79% of the respondents identified themselves as “Female” with the remaining 21% of respondents identifying themselves as “Male”.
When asked if they felt that Tuam Cancer Care were delivering on their mission of “providing emotional, psychological and practical support to people with a cancer diagnosis and to their families”, 80% of respondents responded with a 5 out of 5 rating, and a further 14% gave a 4 out of 5 rating. This rating was highest among the current and former client groupings. 86% of current clients gave a 5 out of 5 rating with a further 8% giving a 4 out of 5 rating. 95% of former clients gave a 5 out of 5 rating with a further 5% giving a 4 out of 5 rating.
When asked how helpful the support services are, 92% gave a 5 out of 5 rating and a further 5% gave a 4 out of 5 rating. Again, this question was rated higher by clients with 94% of current clients giving a 5 out 5 rating, with a further 1% giving a 4 out of 5 rating.
When asked if there was one thing about Tuam Cancer Care that they would change the responses were varied. Some comments included “you can’t improve on perfection”, “such a wonderful service, ran by fantastic people, “Tuam Cancer Care is an invaluable service and I have been so lucky as part of my treatment to have their support”, “I think the support is amazing” to some comments relating to increasing the profile of the organization, advertising the fact that people can drop-in to the Centre, a request for more events such as Coffee mornings and a reduction in waiting times.
Other comments we received were “For me it was a life line. You meet people who are going through their own challenges with their illness. I feel you understand what it feels like to have cancer”, “Have given me back my life”, “The information you get is invaluable and reassuring”, “TCC is a great service and provides so many services and support to cancer patients at all stages of their journey. It’s an uplifting centre to visit and there is a friendly, warm and inviting atmosphere. I would highly recommend TCC.”,
We are delighted to have received such positive feedback, particularly from people that are / have availed of our support services. We are blessed to have a team of dedicated Support Volunteers, Therapists, Counsellors, Facilitators and Staff, and are delighted to see that their hard work and dedication is recognized by those using the services. We also appreciate the comments of where we can improve and these will form the basis of our planning for further support services in the future. We must also highlight that as a charity, our resources are limited, and it is important that we align our key resources – people, money and time – to where it will have most impact. We would like to thank everyone that participated in the survey and gave such honest and open feedback.