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New manager at Macmillan Cancer Support Southport excited for the year ahead

Full calendar of events planned for 2023

NEW MANAGER: Justine Shenton has joined the Southport team

From the Southport Macmillan Centre team

It’s a new year and new beginnings here at the centre as the new manager, Justine Shenton, gets off to a flying start after trying us out in December!

Justine, who trained as a social worker, has also worked with the Alzheimer’s Society, Sefton Advocacy and, most recently, Sefton CVS.

She has a wealth of knowledge about other local organisations and what support they offer and we’re all very excited about how the centre will be able to work alongside them to expand and enhance what we offer our service users - especially in these challenging times.

We’re sure that 2023 will be the year when we’re finally able to resume a full calendar of events without fear that Covid will rear its ugly head - although we will always keep our eyes on numbers, as keeping our service users safe is always a priority. So, what are our plans for this year?

After the success of our recent Health & Wellbeing Event in November we’re aiming on holding three this year and looking at different themes and ideas whilst still keeping the same level of information and support. We all felt that using Southport College as a venue worked really well so are planning to agree some dates so we can let everyone know in plenty of time.

We’re also hoping to run three HOPE Courses this year - this six-week course helps people who’ve finished their treatment but struggling to get their life back on track find coping strategies to help them along. We cover a range of different subjects such as healthy eating, fatigue and fear of recurrence alongside mindfulness and keeping a gratitude diary to remind people that, despite what they may have gone through, there is always something to be thankful for.

Our support groups continue to go from strength to strength with numbers almost back to pre-covid levels. From walking to crafting, we’ve got something for everyone but our plan for this year is to start a couple more – maybe a book club or a board games club? We’re here to serve our service users though so if anyone has any ideas, we’re more than ready to listen. There’s so much more that we want to do this year - Spring Fayre, World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and a Christmas event too so we’ll have to get our craft groups ready for an action-packed year knitting, crocheting, sewing and card making!

But there’s one thing that links all of the above and our ability to do any of them - and that’s our wonderful volunteers. Without them we simply couldn’t manage to offer the variety of groups and events we do and this year we’re looking to expand our volunteer team so if you feel that you’d like to give a little something back then give us a call and have a chat to Justine about the opportunities available.

Southport Macmillan Centre is located on Wright Street, Southport (between Mornington Road and Church Street) and is open Monday to Friday (though not bank holidays) from 10am to 4pm. - we’re a drop-in service so no need to make an appointment! If you can’t manage to get here, just give us a call on 01704 533024 and we’ll be happy to help by phone.

New manager at Macmillan Cancer Support Southport excited for the year ahead

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