Cancer patients to receive chemo comfort bag help

Inco Contracts, which delivers hundreds of turnkey commercial refurbishment schemes across the UK every year, has named the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity as its charity of the year and has already identified three specific targets.

The Penkridge-based company has committed to 1,000 hypoallergenic comfort bags filled with contents to assist patients while undergoing their chemotherapy journey, including wet wipes, lavender oil, tissues, activity books, a handheld fan, lip balm and, following a campaign to engage local crafters, a soft hand knitted heart.

This initial pledge will be followed by raising money for the supply of 500 water bottles to help individuals undergoing radiation, who must drink a certain amount of water to ensure they have the correct level of urine in their bowel.

Inco will also use its supply chain skills to help the charity refurbish the Deanesly Centre garden in the heart of New Cross Hospital.

“We are passionate about supporting good causes in the communities we operate in and those that mean something to our staff, with nearly £20,000 raised for three charities since 2021,” explained Tim Lewis, senior contracts manager for Inco in the West Midlands.

“Cancer is something that touches pretty much every family in the UK and the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust does an excellent job in helping treat thousands of patients every year, giving many of them the opportunity to live longer and some to have full recoveries.”

He continued: “The ‘chemo comfort bags’ are such a great idea and were only introduced as a trial to start with. However, the impact and feedback has been huge, and we wanted to ensure the trust could give them to more people, including a children’s version.

“We’ve even engaged the skills of Albrighton Craft Group, who will be part of a network of crafters knitting up to 1,000 woollen hearts that will go into the bags and be given to other patients.”

44-year-old Mr Lewis has had his own battle with cancer, thankfully recovering after a two-year course of treatment that involved both chemotherapy and radiation.

He received the all-clear last year and is urging more people to make sure they go for a check-up if they spot anything out of the ordinary.

“We want to raise over £10,000 from a series of events and individual challenges and that will go towards the bags, the radiation bottles and any specific projects we can help with,” added Mr Lewis.

“The Deanesly Centre garden refurbishment is the first one we have committed to, and this will see some of our staff and our suppliers swap their day jobs for a mini-DIY SOS project, including jet washing and cleaning down the existing patio garden, installing furniture to meet the new design and apply manifestations to existing windows.”

Amanda Winwood, charity development manager at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity, added her support: “It’s so important that local businesses get behind our work and help us to make life a little easier for our patients.

“The chemo comfort bags, the radiation bottles and any little extras or big projects that are outside of direct treatment must be achieved through fundraising, donations or companies giving up their time to help.”

She added: “Inco Contracts has gone above and beyond, committing to working with us for the entire year and not only donating money, but also their construction expertise and their time.”

Inco Contracts has built a strong reputation for delivering more than 2,100 industrial and commercial refurbishment schemes across the UK.

The workforce has trebled to 40 since a management buy-out was led by current managing director David Cotterill and operations director Sam Norton in 2020.