Designer plea to help Cancer Support France

Cancer Support France, one of the most active charities for English-speakers, is preparing a handbook for its volunteers with information on hospitals, doctors, phone numbers, glossary of medical terms, health information and other welfare support details.

It needs a graphic designer to help pull it all together to create a valuable resource for the dedicated team of trained volunteers called Active Listeners who give practical and emotional support to English speaking cancer patients through the CSF network of 13 affiliated associations. Anyone who is interested can contact Connexion at news@connexionfrance.com and we will forward their details.

The book is funded by donations from Connexion readers who bought the 2018 France calendar, with a €525 share of the proceeds going to CSF.

The contents will be collated by volunteers and CSF is looking for someone to give their time and expertise after the summer to help with the design and further help reduce costs.

Information is being gathered at the moment and all of the design work could be done long distance via internet. There is no need to speak or write French for the project.

News of the handbook comes after Cancer Support France riders took part in its fourth Cycle for Life event with a two-week, 650km ride from the Atlantic resort of Royan to Marseillan Plage on the Mediterranean.

The event was to raise money and awareness of the charity and president Penny Parkinson hailed a great success: “32 people cycled during the 13-day event and sixof them completed the whole route. The others joined for one to four days and 20 were together on the last day.

“All the participants have been in touch about the positive experience of the Cycle for Life, everyone has their own reason for riding and some have close personal cancer stories.”

She said they have not quite reached their target of €10,000 but are close and as more sponsorship money is coming in were confident this would take them beyond the target and allow them to fund their annual Trainer’s Conference in November.

This conference, she said, is the most important event in the CSF year. “It enables our trainers to share, discuss and develop our training, so ensuring a high quality and consistent support service across France.”

The aim is to have the new handbook ready for presentation at the Trainer's Conference.