A BICESTER cancer support centre has expanded after opening seven months ago to meet demand.

The Hummingbird Centre in Launton near Bicester opened in half of a converted barn building on April 1 to provide drop-in advice and support.

Now it has taken over the rest of the barn to meet demand as 50 cancer sufferers regularly visit when it opens on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Before, it had a reception area, a therapy room and an arts and crafts room.

Our top stories

On Wednesday it officially opened bigger arts and crafts and therapy rooms, a larger reception area and a hair and make-up salon.

It costs £2,000 a month to run and has 20 volunteers.

It was founded by Mechelle Harris in memory of father Raymond Hurcombe, from Leicester, who died from leukaemia in 2009.

The 48-year-old said: “If someone told me seven months ago we would be expanding now I wouldn’t have believed it. I am extremely happy.”

The stepmother-of-four was inspired after helping MacMillan Cancer Support charity nurses care for her father at Leicester Royal Infirmary.She said: “Just before he died he said ‘you need to follow your passion and put all this good stuff to use’.

“I think he would be proud of the centre.

“He gave me a grounding for creating this dream.”

The centre offers cancer patients a place to talk to other sufferers about their symptoms or get away from it all. They can do arts and crafts, get one-on-one counselling, massage and foot therapy and get their hair and make-up done.

Bicester mother-of-one Dorothy Thomas, 54, was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and has been visiting the centre since it opened. Alongside chemo and radiotherapy and a successful operation to remove the tumour, she said the Hummingbird Centre had offered emotional support.

Oxford’s Maggie’s cancer support centre expanded into a new £3m centre at the Churchill Hospital, Headington to see about 7,000 people a year.

She said: “I think they are fantastic people, friendly and caring. It is a fantastic place. I had been using Maggie’s centre in Oxford but this is on my doorstep.”

The administration assistant at Langford Village School said: “Speaking to like-minded people, the conversations are just so very different. You can talk about reactions to chemo and they will understand 100 per cent.”

Find out more at thehummingbirdcentre.org.uk or call 01869 244244.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.