Charities

We are a registered charity helping to support people affected by all cancers and other chronic illnesses. The current TWCSC premises at Craven, Stonydelph, were opened in June 2014 to provide a welcoming, friendly place for anyone needing support or information about living with, or after a diagnosis of cancer or any other chronic illness. A dedicated team of volunteers, led by the Centre Manager, work hard to help bridge the gap between clinical and home environments. Our Centre’s doors are open to everyone, whether it be yourself, a friend or a relative that is affected by illness. Come and sit in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and let us offer you practical advice, emotional support or just a listening ear. Living with chronic illness can feel like a very lonely time. Nobody should have to feel this and so this is the very reason our charity exists. We offer holistic therapies, craft therapies, wellbeing projects. We have wig fitting/styling facilities and bra fitting services. We also hold specific support groups throughout the month and we always offer a warm smile and a hot drink with our very willing volunteers.

TDT is a UK-registered charity founded 50 years ago that operates in the more remote regions of Tanzania. Its objective is to help the very poorest people to help themselves. Because it is relatively small (turnover £250-300,000 p.a.) it focuses on girls’ education, clean water, and small income-generating projects. It is run entirely by volunteers, in both the UK and Tanzania, with no offices or paid staff. 100% of all money raised is spent on projects in Tanzania. It has 18 volunteers in Tanzania helping village communities to develop suitable projects, and 20 volunteers based in the UK, mostly experienced professionals who have lived and worked in Tanzania in the past; they evaluate individual projects and visit Tanzania regularly at their own expense to monitor and supervise the projects for which they are responsible. The projects themselves are implemented by a network of local partners, mostly NGOs or CBOs (community-based organisations). TDT typically sponsors around 40 small projects p.a. Most are under £6,000 in size, and benefit between 50 and 1,500 people per project. Brief descriptions of recent projects can be found on the TDT web site www.tanzdevtrust.org/projects It also has a longer-term relationship with four “flagship” projects: a school in Tabora for girls who have been denied access to education because of pregnancy; a vocational training centre for profoundly deaf young people near Dodoma; a single-village integrated development programme in Singida; and an agriculture-based community development programme near Kigoma.   TDT acts as the international voice for these projects, raising money from Trusts and Foundations outside of Tanzania that local NGOs are ill-equipped to approach, whilst providing donors with reassurance that the project will be well-run and all expenditures properly accounted for.

Taunton & Somerset Breast Friends is a support group for people with a breast cancer diagnosis living in Somerset. We provide support, activities & informative guest speakers at our monthly meetings as well as social & wellbeing events for group members. As a group we raise breast cancer awareness for everyone.

TB Alert is the UK’s national tuberculosis charity. We are the only charity that focuses on TB both in the UK and overseas – in India, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. This gives us a unique perspective in order to address issues around TB that are common both to low incidence countries like the UK and high incidence regions such as Africa and Asia. Our work focuses on: -raising public and professional awareness about TB, addressing barriers to treatment, and providing support to patients during their treatment -bringing together statutory health services, voluntary organisations and people affected by TB to plan and deliver better TB services -advocating for the policies and resources to improve the care of patients and the prevention and control of TB. Our vision is the control and ultimate elimination of TB. Our mission is to increase access to effective treatment for all.”