A cancer support group held a celebration night to mark the start of its new evening session.
Rays of Hope was set up in 2015 by Linda O'Malley to offer support to people going through or recovering from cancer treatment.
Originally set up as an outreach project at Elderslie's East Gate Church, the project now runs a number of support groups from creative writing and scrapbooking to gentle exercise sessions and cookery – from its dedicated Rainbow Centre.
And now it's started a new evening support class to be there for people who can't make it along during the day.
Linda said: "The group is for those who have had a cancer diagnosis and are back at work and can’t manage to our daytime classes.
"Although people are returning to work it doesn’t mean that they no longer need support, some desperately do and so it is imperative that we continue to be there for them whether it is for their emotional wellbeing or their physical wellbeing hence the reason for an evening group.
"It's been up and running for a few weeks now and we're getting a great response so far."
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The evening group is on every Thursday from 5pm till 7pm and starts with an hour of support followed by gentle physical exercise.
Linda said: "There are people still getting cancer treatment who are back at work. Sometimes their bosses let them come to the daytime classes but there are others who can't make them.
"For other people, their treatment may have finished but they still need emotional and physical support. There's often a fear that the cancer might come back and it can take months to recover fully from treatment."
The group applied for funding to pay for staff to run the evening support group and were delighted to receive a grant from Affluent Financial Planning in Bridge of Weir.
Linda added: "We were sponsored by Affluent Financial Planning to start this group and were delighted that Carl Melvin M.D. and Kitty Stirling were able to attend our launch evening.
"Alongside some of our newly returned to work members we also had Jill Carrino, deputy CEO of Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, Macmillan Cancer Care and Tony Fitzpatrick former CEO of St Mirren FC join us."
If you or someone you know may need support from Rays of Hope, either pop into the Rainbow Centre at 27 Byres Road in Elderslie or check their website to see what classes and support may suit at https://www.raysofhopecancersupport.com/
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