The Aycliffe Hub Refuses Shelter
Dear Sir,
On the 3rd September I went to the Youth Centre at 5.30pm where the Great Aycliffe Cancer Support Group was due to have a meeting at 6pm with two Guest Speakers.
It was agreed for us to be let in the building at 5.30pm to set everything out. We had already had meetings in June and July in the Youth Centre,
but not in August the holiday period.
The Secretary has opened the building twice for me and was supposed to open up this night. At 5.30pm myself and 22 other cancer patients stood and waited for someone to open the Centre, including the Guest Speakers.
It got colder and colder and then started to rain. We didn’t go home as many were looking forward to their night out as well as gaining some health information which could help them. At 6.15pm still no one had turned up so I went and asked in the building next door “One Point” run by Durham County Council to ask if some of our members could stand inside their building for shelter until we shorted where we could go.
I was only talking 5 or 10 minutes and I specifically said I had terminally ill cancer patients as well as cancer patients who had just had serious operations to remove tumours etc., but their reply was NO!. I was totally appalled, upset and angry that these people couldn’t let someone who is seriously ill just stand in their doorway for shelter. Here we are trying to help people in our community in their hour of need and to support each – The Hub is other obviously not!
The Youth Centre have apologised and are looking into what happened. Someone from One Point did ring me but their excuse was poor, she said maybe it was because there was no manager around. The One Point building just happened to be opened as it normally closes at 5.30pm so maybe a few staff members stayed back to catch up, but I was just asking for shelter for a matter of minutes for very ill people.
Then something amazing happened, Tesco let us use their meeting room and supplied us with hot refreshments and made sure everyone was okay and comfortable. May I thank Shirley and the staff for helping us – words can’t explain how much we really appreciated what they did. They showed true community spirit and compassion.
All I was bothered about were these Cancer patients including myself who were damp and very cold which due to low immunity could have made a huge impact on their condition.
Allison White
Great Aycliffe Cancer Support Group
County Council Replies
Newton News sent this letter to Durham County Council for comment and their reply is as follows:
Rachel Hirst-Dean, Durham County Council Strategic Manager, said: “We are very sorry for any upset caused and would like to apologise to the group.”
