PATCH (People’s Approach to Cancer Help) is a Ventnor-based registered charitable trust (No. 900203) which helps those facing financial problems, caused by cancer and its treatments. Its aim is to alleviate the financial strain caused by transport costs travelling from the Isle of Wight to the mainland for cancer treatments.
If someone is travelling to the mainland daily for six weeks, and has perhaps lost their wages through ill health, they will be facing more than £1000 in ferry travel costs.
This is where PATCH comes in.
When the charity receives thanks for the money they provide to cancer patients PATCH always says “Don’t thank us, it is the people of Ventnor that give it to us for you.”
The area covered is very specific: Chale, Niton, Wroxall, Upper Bonchurch and areas in between. This is where their donations come from and it is therefore only right that funds are kept local. This is what they stated to the Charities Commission when P.A.T.C.H. became registered in 1989.
Donations
PATCH has no administration costs, so every penny of every £1 given will go entirely to someone you know, whether they are a relative, friend or acquaintance. PATCH strongly feels that this has been one reason that the charity has succeeded.
