The sailing trips helping Yorkshire young people see there is a brighter future after cancer

“It was awful, it’s one of those days that you’ll never forget,” says Dr Roberts, a kidney consultant at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “Everything seems to fall apart for a while. Mark was very resilient really, though he did have horrible side effects from the treatment.”

Dr Roberts and his wife, a recently-retired Bradford Royal Infirmary elderly care consultant, paused their work for a time during Mark’s treatment. Their son spent time at both Bradford and Leeds St James’s hospitals, undergoing high dose chemotherapy and later, a stem cell transplant.

"Myself and my wife both had to have some time off work whilst he was having treatment,” Dr Roberts says. “Partly because we emotionally weren’t in a good place to be doing our job but also it was still pretty peak pandemic and he was at such infection risk, we didn’t feel we could be in the hospital working because of what we might bring home. It was a difficult time.”

Now 23, Mark is in remission and has spent much of the past year travelling the world. He graduated from Cambridge University last year with a degree in maths and is starting work this month for a software development company in London. Whilst in hospital, Mark was told of the work of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, a charity which aims to inspire young people, aged eight to 24, who have had cancer to see that there is a brighter future through sailing and outdoor adventure.

“When treatment ends, that’s when the work of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust begins,” Dr Roberts says, “as the charity takes children and young adults, who have experienced cancer, on sailing trips as a strategy to help them believe in a better future.”

When Dr Roberts found out about the charity, he registered to become a medical volunteer. Sailing, he says, is in his blood. He was brought up south of Blackpool and as a child, took part in dinghy sailing with his family. Later in life, he was reintroduced to sailing holidays by his brother-in-law and most years, he and his family charter a small yacht to cruise around the coast of Scotland.

In late May, Dr Roberts travelled to the Isle of Wight for a charity sailing trip in the Solent. He was a volunteer medic on a flotilla of six yachts with 30 children, between nine and 17-years-old, on board. Each boat in the flotilla has a skipper, a volunteer mate and a crew leader, with at least two medics spread across the six boats.

“It was very emotional at times seeing and hearing how sick some of the children had been but also inspiring to spend time with them and to see and hear their determination,” he says. “What’s great about these trips is that they allow the young people to see a better future. By just being together, with people the same age who have shared that common experience, they can talk about what they’ve been through with their peers and that can be incredibly liberating.”

In June this year, Mark took part in one of the charity’s trips to Largs in Scotland. “The sailing was nothing new for Mark, unlike I’m sure the majority of people who go,” Dr Roberts says. “It wasn’t about the sailing but the chat and to be among people who had similar experiences to talk and process what they had all been through.”

Dr Roberts has recently returned from a second trip as a volunteer, this time to Largs. He is keen to raise awareness of the trust’s work, urging medics and non-medics to consider volunteering, and fellow clinicians to spread the word about the opportunity to take part in a trip among eligible children and young adults they see.

“What I see as a volunteer on a trip is a bunch of youngsters who have had a pretty horrendous time at some point in the not too distant past just having a really great time and making friends and connections,” Dr Roberts says. “It’s a wonderful, healing experience.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can email [email protected] More details about the trips, for potential volunteers or young people, can be found at www.ellenmacarthurcancertrust.org