The INIS AOIBHINN RESIDENCE AND CANCER SUPPORT CENTRE is helping to fight cancer on all fronts by providing a unique combination of physical, emotional and spiritual support using practical supports such as accommodation as well as complementary therapies and self help techniques. A lot of thinking has gone into improving the support facilities and therapies available to patients who are undergoing treatment at the radiotherapy unit at UCHG. The result is the Inis Aoibhinn Residence and Cancer Support Centre, a facility that works hand in hand with medical treatment to help patients to come to terms with their illness closer to home.

Radiotherapy is the use of high-energy beams of radiation (usually x-rays), to treat cancer. Treatment usually lasts for around five minutes and patients undergoing radiotherapy have a lot of time on their hands once it is finished. Inis Aoibhinn has a multi-faceted and practical approach: It provides a forum for cancer patients and their families to talk about their illness and decide on the next steps for treatment. Patients and their families benefit from the accommodation services offered enabling them to draw on the support from their loved ones at a time of crisis.

Many patients feel that complimentary therapies may be able to help them in some way that conventional medicine cannot. This is because when diagnosed with cancer, patients have to come to terms with a serious illness that not only affects their physical but also their mental and emotional health. Many patients that are stressed either physically or emotionally because of their illness find real benefit from these therapies and develop an increased sense of well-being and an increased perception of their quality of life. Best practice internationally now backs the concept of attacking the illness on a much wider front and in ways that will allow people to benefit more fully from medical treatement.