Fighting All Cancers Together

The Alternative Scheme allows banks and building societies with a balance sheet of less than £7bn to utilise dormant asset monies to support local or aligned charities. Over the last year, Newcastle Building Society have provided support to the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund.

One group to benefit from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund – which includes support from the Dormant Assets Scheme– is Fighting All Cancers Together (FACT). Based in Gateshead, FACT works to source, promote and form relationships between support services, users, groups, organisations and charities available to cancer patients in the region.

The charity had to suspend all of its face-to-face activities as Coronavirus took hold, with remote support via WhatsApp, Facebook and Zoom being put in place instead. Thanks to two separate grants from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund the charity has been able to respond to a continuing surge in demand for its help, particularly for its counselling services. A total grant of £5,375 was awarded to help towards core running costs at a time when fundraising remains difficult and to fund a support group specifically for men, which offers services such as counselling, social meetings, exercise sessions and a walking group.

The generous support we’ve had from Newcastle Building Society means we’ve been able to manage the costs of meeting this increase in demand and ensure that all our service users can get the help, advice and support that they need.” –  Lorraine Hawthorne, Grants and Partnerships Administrator, FACT