Here at LATCH we carefully consider and distribute the funds raised by our dedicated team and supporters. For us it is important to distribute the funds where it would be most beneficial. We want to make sure that we have continued growth over the coming years and can provide continued support to families.

One important area we fund is the personal and professional development of our staff. This also includes affiliated medical staff engaged in cancer care throughout the UK.

We recently approved funding for two Paediatric Chemotherapy Clinical Nurse Specialists, Claire Lawson and Julie Barnett, to attend the annual UK Oncology Nurses Society Conference (UKONS) in November 2023.

UKONS is a fantastic charity run voluntarily by cancer nurses for cancer nurses. UKONS was founded by UKONS Past Presidents Professor Annie Young, Maggie Crow & Cheryl Vidall in 2005. Their vision is to ‘Promote excellence in the nursing management and care of all those directly and indirectly affected by cancer in all four countries in the UK’

Claire Lawson’s experience at UKONS

“I recently received funding from LATCH to attend the two-day UKONS annual conference that took place in Newport this month. I attended the conference with Julie Barnett, Paediatric oncology/ haematology Advanced Nurse Practitioner. Whilst at the conference, we presented a poster detailing work we have jointly undertaken to re-develop the ward nausea and vomiting guidelines. There were over 200 abstract submissions. Each of which were double blind reviewed and only 169 abstracts were chosen for presentation at the conference. It was therefore a great honour to be able to present our work.

The theme of the conference was ‘Lets integrate cancer care’.

There were some excellent presentations covering subjects such as difficult conversations, body image and new drug treatments.

There were a number of industry stands showcasing new products. One of the stands showed us new skin creams designed to be used to help healing following radiotherapy. Another stand showed us a dressing that can completely enclose a Hickman line which makes showering easier. There were also some great new products that make administration of chemotherapy safer for nursing staff.

The conference was a great learning opportunity for myself and Julie. It provided much food for thought in terms of how we can improve care for our patients on Rainbow. Although the conference was mainly adult focused, it was a great opportunity to showcase some of the fantastic work being undertaken in paediatrics in Wales”