Our New Centre
The New Odyssey Cancer Care Project
Registered Charity No: 1104244
Catalyst
“Using the experience of nursing a close family member diagnosed with Mesathelioma, which is a rare form of lung cancer we opened the doors of the first building that was to eventually become The Odyssey Cancer Care Centre in 1996. This was small a cottage within the grounds of Westfield Lakes, Barton upon Humber that had previously been used for domestic accommodation. The Odyssey Centre was based there for three years and during this time clients from both the South and North Bank of the Humber region began to hear about us and use our services.
The impact of this increase in clients resulted in moving to the existing building. We now find ourselves in a position where this building too has outgrown its potential. We need more therapists and more rooms to be able to offer an improved and extended service to the people who need them. The Odyssey Cancer Care Centre is the only day care centre in North Lincolnshire dedicated to offering a facility of providing complementary care to people diagnosed with cancer, their carer and health professionals.
When the opportunity arose to create The Odyssey Cancer Care Centre we never anticipated that our services would be in such demand. We are now in our 14th year and recognise both a need from our clients, our staff and visitors that sadly the existing premises no longer serve our needs. A new building that reflects a new approach to holistic health by the very nature of how it is built and the materials used to create it are as important to us, as the holistic services that we provide.” – Daisa Morgan (Co-founder)
Project Vision
The services we presently provide from 2 therapy rooms and one lounge area are:
Reiki ~ Aromatherapy ~ Indian Head Massage ~ Reflexology ~ Visualisation ~ Psycho- social Support ~ Body Massage ~ Limited ‘drop-in’ Facilities ~ Open Mornings ~ Bereavement Support
Our new building will enable us to extend our services to include:
- Art Therapy
- Acupuncture
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
- Music Therapy
- Pilates
- Expand our carer’s support and bereavement facility
- Expand our ‘drop-in’ services
- Provide an up to date library with IT facilities
- Provide a children’s area where they can wait and play
- Provide a small café and shop selling local produce
- Provide a room for the use of Health Professionals/Macmillan nurses etc
- Provide a Training and Seminar room that can be hired by the local community
- Create a dedicated Donations and Information Space
- Create 10 therapy rooms (some of these will be available for other therapists to hire)
Fruit & Vegetable Gardens
Over the past two years we have been a ‘flagship’ project for the Community Service enterprise. Each week groups of individuals have been digging, weeding, planting, and harvesting crops of potatoes, leeks, carrots, beans, peas, beetroot, cucumber, parsnips, apples, pears and courgettes. This resource has been invaluable and our aim is to expand this to create our own educational food growing courses. Nutrition is an important component to healthy living and creating an extension to this programme is seen as a valuable resource. The instruction and guidance of how to produce home grown organic vegetables will have a prominent feature in the new Centre’s programme. The grounds will also contain a sensory garden with flowers, shrubs, herbs and vegetables. Access for wheelchair bound clients has been given paramount importance.
A Tranquil Setting
The existing Odyssey Centre building ~ Nightingale House, has proved to be a valuable asset and model for tranquillity and peace. The new building will embrace the same model of feeling ‘at home’ in the peace and tranquillity that has become synonymous with the existing building and will be built in the field adjacent to the existing building. The site is in an elevated position giving extensive views not only over the adjacent fields but extending far beyond towards the Humber Bridge. The new centre will be sited to complement the natural qualities of the site topography, vegetation, landscape forms and characteristics. The building will feature natural materials, use of colour and geometrical proportions to create a harmonious environment encouraging healing and supporting clients, visitors, practitioners and visitors to the centre.
Holistic Approach to Health
The Odyssey Cancer Care Centre supports and cares for the ‘whole’ person. This means emotionally, physically, spiritually and ecologically. When a diagnosis of cancer is given to any person it usually involves the whole family. We offer support and services not only to the person diagnosed but also their primary carer, and health professionals. We care for the caregivers.
Space for Training, exchange and community use.
In past years many members of our staff have benefited from the qualifications and training extended to us by the Bristol Cancer Care Centre, Dove House Hospice, Scunthorpe Hospital and Hull University. It is envisaged that a similar kind of invitation could be made to similar organisations to understand the values and uses of complementary care alongside a cancer diagnosis.
Project Outcome
Over the past 11 years we have delivered over 17,000 therapies to clients diagnosed with various cancers and their carers from within a 60-mile radius. With an increase of more therapists and more treatment rooms we could vastly extend our services to more people. At the moment we offer fixed appointment times for therapies i.e. 10 a.m.
1 p.m. ~ 3 p.m. Also our ‘drop-in’ facility could be extended with the benefit of extra rooms and spaces, with information stands etc.
Sustainability
Creating a sustainable ecologically designed building is of paramount importance to us. Building in a way that acknowledges ‘timeless building wisdom’ will not only create a harmonious and healthy building but also demonstrate how to build without destroying the planet. The shift towards ‘green design’ began in the 1970’s and was a pragmatic response to higher oil prices. We are now seeing evidence that oil reserves are low, prices are high. “Recent studies (see Bartsh and Muller, 2000) point to 2012 as being when the oil shortages will really begin to bite.” (Eco-house2 Sue Roaf Manuel Fuentes and Stephanie Thomas – Architectural Press oxford 2001)
To this end we would be unwilling to compromise with the build of the new centre, and this is why we wish to work with the Planet and not against it. The responsibility of building with sensitivity is paramount to the Holistic care of the Planet. This building will become a living habitat ensuring that the running costs are kept to a minimum. We are looking to build a Centre that we hope will help our ailing Planet ~ not hinder it further.
Visitors & Costs
We anticipate that this project will be of interest to individuals, companies and other businesses that wish to visit the new centre and experience the ‘feel’ and difference that an ecological building provides. Therefore we would open the centre during weekends to offer this opportunity for visitors from the U.K. and beyond who have an architectural interest. The projected cost for this new centre will be around £3 million. We are actively fundraising for this, with an ambitious time frame of commencing building this year and completion for December 2012!!
Please help us to turn this new vision into a reality.
