Face the Future was set up in 2000 to offer women cancer patients the chance to attend a free, morale-boosting skin-care and make-up session locally.

Those who attend are also given a goody bag packed with mainly organic and petrochemical–free products. Sessions are relaxed and informal and they enable patients to meet and discuss with others who have similar experiences.

Face the Future sessions are held near Salisbury and also, since 2008, in Gillingham.

Patients enrol themselves by telephone for the session that suits them.

Face the Future Salisbury offers one-off sessions because there are already two support groups in the locality. Face the Future Gillingham is also run as a support group that meets regularly.

Face the Future is locally run by two volunteers. Funding is provided by private donations and by Salisbury District Hospital’s Stars Appeal.

Several hundred women are diagnosed with cancer at Salisbury District Hospital every year. Many will have surgery followed by chemotherapy there, and then radiotherapy treatment in Southampton. Because of where they live, others may choose to have all or part of their treatment in Bath, Poole, Yeovil, Dorchester or Winchester.

Face the Future is available to them all, wherever they live.