Coronavirus: Middlesbrough cancer therapists start 'kindness calls'

Maxine Nicholson and other volunteers have had to work from home

Cancer support workers and therapists unable to see patients face-to-face have been making "kindness calls" to offer a different kind of care.

They made the change while being unable to work from their Trinity Holistic Centre base in Middlesbrough during the coronavirus lockdown.

Volunteer Maxine Nicholson says it is "essential" the work continues.

Therese Milner from Stockton, who is in remission from lymphoma, said it was "nice to know somebody else cares".

"They've been a big help to me, they really have," she said.

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The centre normally provides emotional support, advice, counselling and complementary therapies.

Ms Nicholson, who volunteers alongside her job as a cancer support worker at James Cook Hospital, first went to the centre as a patient when she had breast cancer.

"Despite the fact we've lost all our usual income we didn't want to furlough the staff because we wanted to launch this new service," she said.

Without these calls "some of the patients might suffer emotionally with nobody to talk to".

They make a weekly phone call of whatever length needed to patients already on their database and to people referred by other agencies.

"We can just talk if it's just talking they want," Ms Nicholson said.

"But we can offer telephone counselling, mindfulness we can even get financial advice for them and we can offer support on local Covid-19 services."

Some therapists have also spoken to patients in hospital with coronavirus who are missing their families.