Operation Butterfly: Volunteers are St Helier Hospital centre's life blood

Residents are digging into their pockets to help our appeal to create a Butterfly Room in St Helier Hospital, a cancer information and support centre which will provide a sanctuary for patients, their carers and family.

A letter sent with one of the cheques, from Mrs Palley, of Hackbridge, read: “In response to your front page article in the Guardian, and having visited the Butterfly Centre in Epsom on several occasions, I would like to support this venture with a small donation.

“Good luck with this as it will be a great benefit to the community.”

A cancer survivor who beat the disease twice and now volunteers at the Epsom Butterfly Centre said she will be happy to see Sutton and Merton residents have the support offered by the service.

Jennifer Newman, 64, had breast and bladder cancer in a space of seven years and never had the opportunity to benefit from the centre’s support.

Last year, on a visit to Epsom Hospital working as a Macmillan Cancer Support fundraiser, Mrs Newman saw the work done by the centre’s nurses and decided to volunteer too.

She said: “I was so taken by the work they were doing that I decided to join them and volunteered to help.

“With hindsight, if i had been given this attention while I was receiving treatment, my recovery would have been an awful lot easier, especially during chemotherapy.

“To be able to have had this to look forward to would have been wonderful.”

Mrs Newman now works welcoming people to the Butterfly Room, serving tea, having a friendly chat and helping with administrative duties.

We want to hear about any fundraising ideas you have to make this scheme become real. Email us your stories to newsdesk@suttonguardian.co.uk.

If you would like to make a donation please send a cheque made payable to Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, to Operation Butterfly, Unecol House, 819 London Road, North Cheam SM3 9BN.

For more information about the Butterfly Centre call 01372 735456.