We hope you’re enjoying some sunshine somewhere today ☀️
Our 2026 residentials are about to begin, so we thought we’d share some Flynne’s Barn updates with you before we dive into the months ahead. Winter may be our quieter season in the Barn, but we’ve been busy behind the scenes!
🪶 Our counselling team recently enjoyed a day of CPD, testing out creative therapeutic exercises together in the barn, pictured above. This incredible team offer vital support during some of our young people’s toughest moments and we are so grateful for their ongoing work. We’ve also commissioned an independent evaluation of the counselling service and are seeing significantly increased demand, which we’re aiming to meet as best we can.
🌱 We’re excited to have welcomed 11 brilliant young people to our first Flynne’s Barn Youth Panel. Each member has used our counselling or residential services, bringing invaluable lived experience of cancer to help shape what we do next. They’ll meet online throughout the year, with an in-person meeting at the Barn in November.
🤝 In addition, 14 young people have completed their volunteer training and are ready to support our residentials, with more in the pipeline. It’s inspiring to see how many want to stay connected and give back, offering both practical help during stays and support that’s rooted in lived experience. We’re looking forward to our Volunteer Training Weekend in mid-March.
☪️ We pride ourselves in creating a safe and inclusive space where everyone is welcomed. To this end, we’ve noticed that we need to remove some barriers for young Muslim women to confidently attend a residential stay. In July we’ll be offering a stay staffed exclusively by women, with a Halal menu, designated prayer space and a programme designed around participants’ needs and interests. We’re delighted that Jamila, a TCT Youth Support Coordinator from UCLH and Roomana, a Flynne’s Barn volunteer, will be supporting this stay. Get in touch with Katherine if you, or someone you know, could benefit from this residential.
🌳 Over the winter months we’ve continued to develop the outdoor spaces through tree planting. We’re aiming to create a rich and diverse habitat both for biodiversity and for our visitors to enjoy nature in the valley. We’ve planted three hundred more trees around the barn and in the meadows. They are mainly birch, aspen, and rowan this year, with a few stands of Scots Pine.
💗 We are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Northern Cancer Alliance specifically to reach young people living with, or beyond, cancer within the footprint of the NHS Trusts that make up the North East and North Cumbria. If you know a young person within these areas that we could support, please let us know.
🏃 And finally, we are over the moon to have filled our Great North Swim and Great North Run places with 10 wonderful individuals. We’ve also got Flora running the London Marathon for us in 8 weeks’ time, William from Booths tackling the legendary Bob Graham Round and some other brilliant local challenges and events from those within our community. Thank you all!
Your support means more than ever as we enter our sixth year of residentials. We already have young people on the waiting list for 2027, as stays near capacity. Your continued donations mean that we can keep reaching every young person who needs us. Thank you.
With best wishes from all at Flynne’s Barn 🌤️