Teens take time to help other young sufferers

Despite battling ill-health and facing gruelling cancer treatment, two teenagers have spent the past year fundraising to help other young people.
Advertiser reporter Elizabeth Hambidge talks to Nathan Roberts, 18, and Toby Nadal, 16, about their efforts for the Teenage Cancer Trust, which has helped them through difficult times.

Nathan, of Coleman Avenue, Balderton, was first treated for a skull and facial tumour at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, in 2011.

The tumour was so rare — it had grown inside his head rather than on his skin — that consultants sought advice from colleagues worldwide.

He underwent gruelling radiotherapy, and is now receiving other treatment.

Nathan said his experience in hospital, where he was moved from ward to ward, spurred him to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, to help them create a ward specifically for teenagers.

“At one point they put me on the female ward because there was nowhere else to put me,” he said.

“Obviously now I’ve been there and done it but there are other teenagers who have got to do the same thing so doing things makes me feel like I’m helping them as well.”

Nathan, who has raised about £6,000 towards his £10,000 target, said the trust had helped him to make friends who had similar experiences.

“I went to the Isle of Wight with the charity and after that a lot of people added me as friends on Facebook and it’s nice to keep in touch with them,” he said.

“When I first came out of hospital it was as if people were afraid to talk to me and didn’t know what to say but I probably would have been the same. I’ve lost a lot of friends.

“People often ask me if I’ve had a fight, and when I tell them what happened they put their heads down in shame.

“People say they don’t know how I have coped and obviously this wasn’t a good thing, but there are people worse off than me so you have got to get on with it.”

Nathan, who recently started work at Daloon Foods, Newark, said he was planning his next fundraising event — his biggest yet — following on from parties he had held during the past year.

He planned to ask fellow cancer sufferers to tell their stories, which would be played on a screen during the event.

Nathan said: “People keep asking me what I will do after I have raised the £10,000, and I think I’ll always try to help wherever I can.

“The charity is not as high profile as things like the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK but it does important work.”

Nathan said he was working with Newark College to find a new career path after he was unable to take part in a welding course due to his poor eyesight from the operation.

Toby, of Highfields Drive, Bilsthorpe, began his fundraising campaign, which has just reached its £10,000 total, after treatment for a brain tumour at the Queen’s Medical Centre.

Last year he was diagnosed with an epidermoid cyst, a non-cancerous but inoperable tumour, which will need treatment throughout his life.

Toby has raised money for equipment such as iPads for teenagers at the hospital to use during their treatment.

“Raising money has been like a distraction to get away from dealing with something I didn’t want to deal with, although I knew at some point I would have to come back and think about it,” he said.

Toby said the Teenage Cancer Trust had helped to explain his condition to fellow pupils at The Minster School, Southwell.

“At the start I remember keeping it quite quiet and telling only two or three friends,” he said.

“It definitely helped telling more people because then there are more people who support you.

“Finding the support I didn’t really know was there has been one of the biggest things for me.”

Toby plans to continue his fundraising by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats after his GCSE exams next summer.

He said: “After I have done that I’m going to see where life takes me. I have not made any decisions.”