A TOWN centre hub which offers cancer patients a break from reality by offering them free care services was the target of mindless vandals this week as they wrecked the charity’s wellbeing garden.
The Well, based on Regent Street, is a free beauty therapy service which is available to all cancer patients in Barnsley.
Although the therapies are not a replacement or alternative choice to conventional methods of cancer treatments, The Well is a place for patients to somewhat escape the suffering they are going through – even if for just a few hours.
They even have an outdoor rooftop garden for patients to use after their therapy – a place that staff try their hardest to make look incredible during the summer months.
It therefore makes it all the more heartbreaking that mindless vandals managed to gain access to the site, before throwing chairs and plant pot donations onto the courtyard below.
Julie Brearley, team leader at The Well, told the Chronicle: “We are a cancer charity and we also work with the NHS to deliver therapies for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.
“It’s a free service for anyone in Barnsley and the surrounding areas.
“We do a lot of fundraising, people donate – it’s a lovely community project.
“Everything we have here is done through fundraising or donations.
“We try to give people a nice bit of space for when they’ve finished with their treatments.
“There’s a coffee morning on a Thursday so the garden is somewhere where they can go and relax.
“It’s just something nice for people – and someone’s decided to wreck it.”
Julie admits she is confused at how the perpetrators even managed to access the rooftop garden – and she’s even more bewildered as to why someone would attack their charity in the first place.
“How they’ve done it, I don’t know,” she added.
“I’m absolutely astounded. What you don’t expect to do is to put cameras up. I know it’s only a shed but it’s bad for us. I want people out there to have some sort of a conscience.
“Why would you do something like that? It’s someone who is very, very angry that’s done this.”
The charity has been operating out of their current site for the last six years – and they’ve never suffered a break-in like this before.
Julie added: “My first thought was that I don’t want to do the garden now because they’re only going to come back and chuck all the other stuff off. It takes a lot of work every year to make it look nice. We’ve been here six years but it’s not happened before.
“They’ve launched the items – it’s so frustrating.”
South Yorkshire Police confirmed an investigation is underway.
A spokesperson said: “At around 5.30am on Wednesday, we received a report of a burglary at a business premises in Queens Court on Regent Street in Barnsley.
“It is reported that at some time between 6pm on Tuesday and 5.30am on Wednesday morning, entry was gained to the premises and rooftop terrace, with damage caused to various items.
“An investigation has been launched and enquiries are ongoing. Anyone with information that could aid our enquiries is asked to contact us online or by calling 101, quoting investigation number 14/74516/25.”
