The Give A Duck Foundation is a children’s cancer charity, supporting local children who have been diagnosed with cancer throughout the UK.
Chemo Duck is fitted with medical lines and ports to mirror those of the child. Play Leaders, through play therapy use Chemo Duck to prepare children for their treatment, be it an appointment with their Consultant, administering chemotherapy or taking blood samples.
Children feel they can take back some control at a time when they have very little, for example by suggesting that nurses clean the Duck’s Hickman Line or Portacath before their own. Things are less scary if Chemo Duck experiences the treatment the children will go through and provides a relaxed way to have discussions about what will happen to them in hospital.
We want to provide Chemo Duck packs to every specialist centre in childhood cancer in the UK. We work with the majority of the specialist childhood cancer centres in the UK and in partnership with some local children’s charities who distribute the ducks on our behalf. By working with health care professionals about the many uses and roles Chemo Duck can play during treatment, we know we can help make things a little easier at a really difficult time.
Our childhood cancer story…
Harry is now a teenager, but when we he was seven our founding trustees Karen and Andrew received the devastating news he had leukaemia.
Harry was promised a Chemo Duck to help him adjust to his new path in life and his parents ensured he received one.
Contacting Lu, the founder of the Chemo Duck charity in the US, they discovered that distribution problems were preventing the ducks being sent to the UK.
In 2015, after contacting Lu Karen and Andrew established Give A Duck and in 2015 it became a registered charity in England & Wales (Reg. Charity No. 1164904), with the aim to offer a Chemo Duck to every child in the UK diagnosed with cancer.
Karen and Andrew knew what a comfort Chemo Duck was to Harry throughout his treatment. They also appreciated the comfort and companionship of Huggable Hope the sibling duck given to Harry’s brother and sister.
Give A Duck are there to make things a little easier for all families in the UK facing the long, challenging and painful journey of childhood cancer.
We want every child diagnosed with cancer in the UK to be given the hope and companionship this unique programme provides to help them through treatment.
We will put all of our efforts into raising funds, partnering with local charities where they exist, so that children with cancer feel more in control and less anxious.
Play therapy is a proven technique for helping children to understand medical procedures, and a better understanding means they are less scared and more prepared. We can’t stop children getting cancer, but we can help to make the treatment journey easier.
Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program is a unique educational program offered by Gabe’s My Heart, a non-profit organisation in the USA that supports children and families living with cancer.
Created by Gabe’s mother when he was diagnosed with cancer at a young age, Chemo Duck is a soft, cuddly companion that provides huggable hope and alleviates fear and anxiety.
Developed with the help of paediatric healthcare specialists and medical professionals, the education programme helps introduce children and families to their new life and encourages healing through the power of play therapy. Give A Duck is the UK partner for Gabe’s Chemo Duck, distributing the cuddly ducks to children with cancer and their families, and giving them access to the education programme that goes with them.
With permission from Lu, Karen and Andrew registered The Give A Duck Foundation as a registered charity in England & Wales (Reg. Charity Number 1164904) with a mission to provide a Chemo Duck for every child diagnosed with cancer in the UK, and their siblings a Huggable Hope.