Cancer Rehabilitation Service

Cancer rehabilitation support

Cancer Rehabilitation supports people to live well with and beyond cancer using a range of tools and opportunities that can enhance your recovery and improve your ability to ‘tackle tomorrow’.

It’s available to anyone who has received cancer care under the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and is run by Cancer Clinical nurse specialists in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.

Watch our short video to find out more about the support on offer to our patients.

Our service can help support you with:

• Physical activity: Being more physically active can help you cope with and recover from the negative effects of cancer and treatment, such as tiredness, being less socially active, lack of stamina and confidence.
• Psychological support: Living with and after a cancer diagnosis can be difficult and lead to many emotions such as sadness and depression, loneliness, worry, fear and anxiety, anger and frustration. This is perfectly normal, but if these emotions become overwhelming then professional support can help. Your family or those significant to you may also be able to access this support if it is helpful to them.
• Practical issues: Cancer can impact on many practical issues, such as the caring responsibilities you may have, work or education, as well as having a huge impact on finances. Advice from professionals can help support you and minimise this impact.
• Self-management and education: Being informed enables you to understand your condition and empowers you to manage it more effectively. We provide educational courses to suit your needs.
• Social peer support: Sharing your experience with others who have been through something similar can be really positive and uplifting. We can inform you of support groups and other activities available locally.

To help you look at moving forward, we think it’s important that these services are linked between the hospital and community, so many of the activities take place in leisure or community centres, supported by trained cancer professionals.

We offer:

‘Take Control’ workshops for patients and families. This is a short day self-management course and will include topics such as:

• Sleep problems
• Healthy eating and diet
• Physical activity and exercise
• Stress
• Fatigue management and pacing
• Fear about the future
• Realistic goal setting

We also run an Enhanced Supportive Care Clinic in partnership with the palliative care team where we see patients whose disease is treatable but not curable, providing a one to one meeting to assess and plan additional support and help to manage the physical, emotional, psychological and practical aspects of cancer. Following assessment, onward referrals can be made to physical activity specialists, relationship counsellors, Macmillan befriending and clinical health psychology

If you would like to learn more about our service or make a referral please email cancer.rehabilitation@nhs.net or call 07392 861323 and leave a voicemail.

• List of useful apps for people with cancer

Hair Advisory Service

We run a Hair Advisory Service for men and women. We offer a range of wigs, headscarves and information about haircare and scalp care.

If you would like to order a wig through us, you are entitled to a wig at the cost of £74.15 on the NHS (price correct as of April 2020). If you require two wigs, the second wig would be charged at full price.

If you are currently receiving benefits you may be eligible for a free wig from the NHS; please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.

Head scarves are also individually priced and we can assist in making the right choice for you. We can also send you a catalogue, if this is something you would like.

Phone 0118 322 8722 or 0118 322 7888 to enquire about this service. If there is no answer, please leave a message and we will call you back.

Open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 9am to 5pm

Address: Hair Advisory Service, Berkshire Cancer Centre, Royal Berkshire Hospital, London Road, Reading, RG1 5AN