John Le Vay Cancer Support Centre

John Le Vay Cancer Support Centre at Ipswich Hospital

We are based at the North end of Ipswich Hospital – entrance 15.

John Le Vay Cancer Support and Information Centre Accessibility information from AccessAble (Opens in a new window)

A listening ear

We understand that sometimes your situation cannot be fixed, but that you need someone who is prepared to listen. The centre staff and volunteers will be able to offer you that support.

Leaflets and books

We have many available for you to take away, either specific information about a particular type of cancer or a number of general support books. We also have information and leaflets about organisations, equipment and practical issues that may be useful.

Referrals and advice

We can make referrals to other departments within the hospital or outside the organisation. We can help point you in the right direction of people and places that might be able to provide you with some additional support.

We can help with a wide range of topics:

• advice about benefits, transport, blue badges
• we can direct you to local and national sources of support
• we hold workshops and host complementary therapy practitioners from the Cancer Campaign in Suffolk charity
• we can refer you for counselling and family support
• we have healthy eating advice and can refer you to a specialist cancer dietician
• we offer hair and skincare advice
• we are here to support carers and family members
• we host cancer support group meetings

At times when we have insufficient team capacity to safely meet the needs of people walking in to the centre, we will close the front doors and instead clearly invite people to access us via other routes that will remain available – telephone / email / website

• Outside of the centre’s open times, contact details and forms will be available outside the centres and the phones will go to answerphone so that we can arrange to call people back as soon as possible
• Patients arriving for pre-booked appointments will be welcomed as usual by their therapist / counsellor

Give us your feedback

Your feedback helps us to improve and develop our services and ensure we are meeting patient and family members’ needs. We would appreciate it if you can let us know your thoughts on what we do well and what we could improve, including any ideas you have.

You could leave feedback in the centre, or contact us by phone or email.

Volunteer and fundraise

We value the time and skills that people give to help the centre run.  If you are interested, then please ask how you might be able to help.  You must be a minimum of two years post-treatment to do any face to face work with patients.  However, we may have projects that you can help with earlier.

We are also looking for people who would like to be creative and might like to join up with others to run occasional cake and craft tables to raise money for the centre.

Ipswich Cancer Information website

We have a comprehensive website which was developed by staff and patients in the John Le Vay centre. The site was kindly funded by a local charity, Art for Cure. On the website, you can find out about events, courses and complementary therapy sessions being held in the John Le Vay centre and at other locations in Suffolk.

Ipswich Cancer Information website (Opens in a new window).