We work very closely with the medical teams and disease-specific Assistant Nurse Practitioners (ANP), so that all teenagers and young adults with cancer are cared for both by experts in their disease and experts in this age group.
Meet the team
We are a dedicated professional team of doctors, nurses, youth support co-ordinator, teachers, social worker and psychologists.
Karen Sherbourne
Teenage Cancer Trust Lead Nurse
- Leads and consults on the development and evaluation of the service with the wider multidisciplinary team
- Provides expert clinical care, advocacy and support to young people age 16-24 with a diagnosis of cancer
- Offers support, guidance and information to their families, friends and significant others
- Provides expert advice to colleagues in Oxford and other hospitals in the region
Contact details
- Tel: 01865 572281
- Email: karen.sherbourne@ouh.nhs.uk
Beth McCann
TYA Senior Specialist Nurse
- Acts as a key contact and advocate for TYA patients from diagnosis, through treatment and into follow-up
- Offers support, guidance and information to patients, their families, friends and significant others
- Liaises with other members of the team to identify any issues or potential problems and plan interventions
- Provides expert clinical advice and teaching for professionals working with TYA patients with cancer in the Trust and other hospitals in the region
Contact details
- Tel: 01865 572281
- Email: beth.mccann@ouh.nhs.uk
Kam Bhatti
Teenage and Young Adult Therapy Radiographer
Our Teenage and Young Adult Therapy Radiographer:
- works in Radiotherapy, using radiation to treat cancer patients of all ages
- helps to co-ordinate the needs of each individual throughout planning and administering treatment.
This includes helping with treatment-related side-effects and management, as well as additional support to make the journey as smooth as possible.
Contact details
- Tel: 01865 235465 (ask for Kam)
- Email: kamaldeep.bhatti@ouh.nhs.uk
- Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group - publications for teenagers and young adults
Macmillan Clinical Psychologist
Our Macmillan Clinical Psychologists look after young people's emotional and psychological wellbeing.
They help them:
- adjust to their illness
- manage difficult emotions
- cope with the side-effects of treatment
- negotiate changes in relationships with family, friends or partners.
They offer:
- a safe space to talk about your experiences with someone outside of your usual support system
- practical ideas and strategies to help.
Contact details
- Tel: 01865 223195 (Secretary)
- Email: emily.betts@ouh.nhs.uk or helen.griffiths@ouh.nhs.uk
Emily Betts
Macmillan Clinical Psychologist
Helen Griffiths
Macmillan Clinical Psychologist
CLIC Sargent Support
CLIC Sargent offers social work support to young people and their families, ensuring they receive financial, practical and emotional support.
What they can offer you includes the following.
Emotional support
- Providing emotional support to you and your family / partner; also includes work helping your siblings
- Access to CLIC Sargent's online community for 16-24 year-olds
Practical support
Providing you and your family access to 'CLIC Court', a CLIC Sargent 'Home from Home' five minutes' walk from the John Radcliffe Hospital. It is available for you or your family to stay free of charge. It is particularly useful if you are in for long periods of treatment or have an early start. Rooms are allocated on basis of one per family.
Financial support
- Providing you with a one-off £170 grant
- Helping you to access other funding if required
- Welfare Advice Line - information regarding benefits
Working with other agencies
- Supporting you to liaise with organisations including school / college, employers, housing or any others as needed
- Helping you apply for a 'Wish'
Marc Sidwell
Young Lives vs Cancer Social Worker
Contact details
- Tel: 01865 227403 (8.00am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays)
- Mobile: 07771 815 453
- Email: marc.sidwell@younglivesvscancer.org.uk
Clare Taylor
Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Co-ordinator
- Provides individually tailored support for TYA patients
- Organises activities in hospital and off-site
- Listens and talks with TYA patients about their experiences of cancer from diagnosis to end of treatment
- Can provide advice and information on things like body image, sex and relationships, self-esteem, work experience, drugs and alcohol
Hospital School Teacher for 16-18s
Our teacher provides educational support for people aged 16-18 admitted to adult wards at the Churchill Hospital.
Our teacher offers:
- liaison with schools or colleges
- education in hospital (teaching 1:1 or in small groups, schoolwork or a more creative curriculum based on interests and motivations)
- help with planning education after discharge, including careers guidance
- support for the return to school or college
- advice and advocacy.
She helps with all aspects of education, minimising disruption due to hospital stays, arranging for exams to take place in hospital and smoothing the transition back to school or college.
Additionally, she can help patients explore all their options, such as a range of AQA unit awards.
Catherine Costello
Hospital School Teacher for 16-18s
Contact details
- Tel (JR): 01865 234092
- Mobile: 07483 116783
- Email: catherine.costello@ohs.oxon.sch.uk
- Oxfordshire Hospital School
