Charity founder tackling loneliness in people with cancer through letter writing

Independent

29-01-2025

A charity founder hopes to 'reduce loneliness and isolation' among people living with cancer through a 24-hour letter writing marathon for World Cancer Day.
Alison Hitchcock, 56, is co-founder of From Me To You Letters, a charity supporting people living with cancer by sending them letters, and has created a 24-hour event to mark World Cancer Day which falls on February 4.
The 24-hour Letter Writing Marathon hopes to bring together writers from across the globe via an online video link to spend an hour of their day writing and sharing letters in a bid to combat isolation among people living with cancer.
'This is an opportunity for us all to come together and just be part of something where we are thinking about people who have cancer, but we're actively doing something to support them as well,' Ms Hitchcock, from Blandford in Dorset, told the PA news agency.
'I think the marathon is a real, tangible proof of the number of people who we've been able to connect with and who have wanted to connect with what we do.'
She hopes the free event, which will take place from 9am on Saturday February 8 until 9am on Sunday February 9, will help people realise they are 'making a difference' to people living with cancer.
'What we hope is that often when people want to write to somebody who's living with cancer they just don't know how to go about it, so this will enable them, will give them the tools to do that (write a letter),' Ms Hitchcock said.
'If it just means that they then reach out to maybe an auntie or a cousin or a dad with a letter or a card… then that will have just started to reduce some of the loneliness and isolation that a cancer diagnosis can bring.'
Ms Hitchcock said the event is designed to 'show you how to connect and how to support someone who's living with cancer' and will be hosted remotely via a Zoom link to allow people from around the world in different time zones to participate.
I think the marathon is a real, tangible proof of the number of people who we've been able to connect with
Alison Hitchcock, co-founder of From Me To You charity
The charity began in 2017 after fellow co-founder Brian Greenley was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer in 2010, and Ms Hitchcock offered to write him letters after he mentioned feeling isolated and lonely.
Over the following two years, Mr Greenley's cancer moved to stage four before he was cancer-free in 2013.
'As a friend, I felt really helpless as to how I could support him and so I just came up with this wacky idea that I would write letters to him,' Ms Hitchcock said.
She said her letters helped Mr Greenley through a difficult few years after he underwent several surgeries for his cancer.
'He said my letters made him smile,' Ms Hitchcock said.
'They let him know that he wasn't alone, and they became a really important part of his cancer experience and something that he came to rely on as part of the support.
'We then set up the charity to say to people, 'Look, you can support your friends and family and loved ones in this really simple way'.'
The charity takes anonymous letters from people from across the globe before they are repackaged and distributed to hospitals, cancer centres and individuals monthly.
She said last year the charity distributed 13,500 letters to people living with cancer.
The charity was recognised by the Princess of Wales at her Christmas carol service, which Ms Hitchcock said she was 'blown away' by.
'We were just so incredibly touched that of all the charities that she could have chosen to identify with on that particular occasion, she chose to identify with us,' she said.