June has been an exceptionally busy month here at Thorneythwaite, so we’ll dive straight in!

🙏 Volunteers’ Week 🙏

So much of our work is fuelled by volunteers. We’re lucky to have a wealth of friendly faces who gift their time to help the young cancer community.

We celebrated them during Volunteers’ Week (1st-7th June) and spotlighted some of what they’re up to on our socials. The week kicked off with a visit from our new partners at Shortridge Laundry, who came to help us with a Barn changeover. We loved hearing their expert tips on bed-changing!

If you have a skill you’d like to lend us, get in touch with Katherine on info@flynnesbarn.org.

🏊‍♀️ Great North Swim 🏊‍♀️

On the weekend of 12th-14th June, Nat, Daisy and Kat took on the 1-mile Great North Swim in Windermere and raised an incredible £1490 between them for Flynne’s Barn. Well done team! 💪

💕Small Charity Week💕

We launched our first big fundraising appeal this month, as part of the Big Give’s Small Charity Week. Backed by our match funders, the Postcode Neighbourhood Trust (made possible thanks to the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery), we set ourselves a target of £9,000 to help us fund our residential stays.

You – our awesome supporters – absolutely showed up and we reached our goal in less than 48 hours. The biggest thank you to everyone who donated: we are so grateful. You are making an incredible difference to young people living with cancer.

A big shout-out too to Aimee, Lloyd and George for sharing their stories with us and Global’s Make Some Noise, our patron Ellie Rowsell for showcasing us on her platforms, and Chloe M for her time spent on the week’s design assets.

🪕 Barnfest: 10 days to go! ⛺

It’s nearly Barnfest! Head over to Thorneythwaite on 10th or 11th July to join us for a weekend of folk and fundraising 🎻🎉🍃

As well as live music, we’re laying on some lovely things for families on the afternoon of 11th July (see above), including circus skills, alpacas, poetry, crafting and a giant marble run build.

Tickets are still available for the whole weekend, one day only or Saturday afternoon for families 🎟️🎵

☕June stays: Katherine’s round-up ☀️

In early June, we welcomed a group of young people from Scotland (lead by Nicola Walker, a Youth Support Coordinator based in Edinburgh and Amanda Copland, a Clinical Nurse Specialist based up in Grampian).

Bringing young people together from rural communities demonstrates the vital role that places like Flynne’s Barn play in connecting young cancer patients who might otherwise miss out on peer support because of the challenges of living in remote areas.

The group enjoyed connecting with nature through harvesting elderflower and making the most delicious cordial, as well as all the usual Flynne’s Barn activities. We were also treated to a traditional chai brew thanks to Aagoon sharing her family recipe from Darjeeling.

And last week, a group of patients treated at UCLH travelled up from London during the heatwave. To say it was hot would be an understatement, but everyone coped brilliantly.

We made the most of the sunshine with plenty of opportunities to cool off in the river, and there were certainly some fearless adventurers among the group. We even assembled a diving team to rescue a sunken Apple Watch – thankfully, the mission was a success!