Newcastle volunteers support 1,500 cancer patients

Dragonfly Cancer Trust works with specialist cancer treatment centres, hospitals, hospices and families across the UK providing support for young patients with terminal cancer who receive palliative treatment. The charity focuses on memory making, helping young patients under the age of 25 to make each moment matter with their loved ones.

Twenty-two employees from the Amazon fulfilment centre in Gateshead recently volunteered to pack activity boxes for Dragonfly Cancer Trust. The boxes were sent to over 50 hospitals across the UK and contained supplies for more than 1,500 children and young people to use during their hospital stays.

Jane Dennison, CEO at Dragonfly Cancer Trust said: “From being founded as a small, family-led organisation, we’ve transformed into a national charity, working with every major children's cancer unit and impacting the lives of hundreds of young people around the country every year.

“We would like to say thank you to the team at Amazon in Gateshead for their support in helping so many young people. The activity boxes will provide them with creative focus, and some welcome distraction during their treatment and stays in hospital.”

Dragonfly Cancer Trust is currently enhancing its sibling boxes, which will offer a talking point for families preparing for what may lie ahead and providing an opportunity for siblings to ask often difficult questions surrounding death and dying.

Daniel Stewart, Site Leader at Amazon in Gateshead, added: “We’re proud to lend our support to this fantastic charity by packing creative therapy boxes and we know they will make a difference.”

Community donations and employee volunteering are just two of the ways Amazon supports the communities where it operates. Amazon co-founded the Multibank initiative with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to support families in need. The Junction Multibank opened this year, with Middlesbrough charity The Junction. The initiative has donated more than 5 million surplus goods to over 500,000 families across Wales, Scotland, Greater Manchester, London, and Tees Valley.

Amazon has supported more than one million students across the UK with free STEM education programmes through Amazon Future Engineer and helps community organisations transport meals and other essentials to families in need through its pro bono logistics programme, Amazon Local Good.

Amazon partners with Comic Relief and is the official home of the charity’s iconic Red Nose. Together with its employees, customers, and partners, Amazon has raised over £4.8 million to fund projects that support people across the UK, and around the world.