Support Café For People Affected by Cancer

Introduction:

A new community-based initiative is being launching in Spalding by White Eagle Cultural and Development Centre CIC: “Living Well: Before and Beyond Cancer” which is a programme centred around open, informal support café sessions for people affected by cancer.

The café is open to:

• people living with cancer,
• people who have completed cancer treatment,
• family members and loved ones.

The sessions take place every two weeks, starting Sunday 18th January 2026, and offer a calm, welcoming space to meet over coffee, talk, or simply be together. No registration or referral is required.

When and Where

When: Sundays starting from 18th January 2026 and then every two weeks at 5:00pm

Where: Spalding Common Community Hall, Spalding Common, Spalding, PE11 3AS

Other Services on Offer

In addition to the café sessions, they offer community-based support to help people understand NHS letters and medical information, and to book appointments or screenings.

This support is available to English-speaking residents in exactly the same way as to Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Lithuanian, and Russian-speaking communities.

They would like to clearly highlight that this is not a clinical or interpreting service. Their role is to explain, guide, and reassure, helping people feel more confident and supported when accessing NHS care.

As part of the project, they are also planning:

• Three group bowling outings to encourage social connection and gentle physical activity
• Three cancer prevention and early detection sessions, focused on awareness, screening, and wellbeing.

Dates for these activities will be shared on an ongoing basis.

They are open to collaboration and would welcome any suggestions for future awareness or prevention sessions delivered in English, with translation support provided by our team as needed. At this stage, they are particularly interested in prevention topics such as:

• Self-examination and recognising early symptoms (including breast awareness)
• Understanding at-home screening or test kits available from pharmacies
• Healthy nutrition, obesity prevention, and smoking cessation.

Through their frontline work, they are aware that for some communities, barriers to accessing healthcare are not only linguistic but also cultural. In certain cultural contexts, women may feel discouraged from attending medical appointments, and preventative healthcare is not always prioritised.

For this reason, they believe it is especially important to promote alternative, culturally sensitive pathways to prevention, empowering individuals with knowledge and confidence before clinical contact becomes necessary.

All support provided through the project is confidential, person-centred, and community-led.

There is no referral form or paperwork – anyone can attend the café sessions or contact them directly.

Further Information

For more information please call 07828 675667 or send an email to we.cicspalding@gmail.com