The atmosphere in the Teens Unite office today is still buzzing following our Discover You event yesterday! This day of self-discovery brought together 100 young people supported by Teens Unite along with their friends and family, where they heard from inspiring motivational speakers as well as having the opportunity to try something new with our breakout sessions.
Etc.Venues Fenchurch Street was our home for the day, and we couldn’t have hoped for a more suitable location for Discover You; the open layout of the event space enabled the young people and their families to chat and get to know other families who have been through or are going through a similar situation to their own. During our breakout sessions, we were able to escape to the tranquil yoga room with dim lighting and relaxing music or gain some careers guidance from The Ability People in the bright and airy conference spaces. We were well looked after throughout the day by the friendly staff, who also put on a fantastic spread of food which just kept on coming out all day!
We were delighted to welcome Beth and Leanne from The C-Pod as our Discover You hosts. Beth and Leanne met through Teens Unite, and we were so proud to see them take to the stage to welcome our guests who may have had the same thoughts, feelings and anxieties that Beth and Leanne had when they sat in the same seats four years ago. They shared their own stories, explaining how they have tried to take something positive from being diagnosed with cancer: their friendship. Through their friendship, they have created an online community of young people overcoming cancer through their podcast, The C-Pod. Beth also addressed the concept of setting ‘goals’ that are tailored to your own desires and ability; when Beth attended Discover You as a guest her goal was to be able to walk to college. However four years down the line, her goals have changed and she now aspires to run her own business. This allowed us to start the day with an open mind and focus on our own personal development rather than compare our progress to others.
Also taking to the stage at Discover You were Chris Lambert-Gorwyn, MMA Fighter Dylan Evans and Paralympian Liz Johnson.
Chris shared his tips on ensuring you have a ‘Millionaire Morning’ by never hitting the snooze button, eating a protein breakfast, identifying 3 top goals and ‘bouncing’ to energise your brain.
Dylan inspired our guests talking about the biggest fight of his life: cancer. With positive thinking and determination, Dylan continued training to be a successful MMA Fighter whilst undergoing treatment, pushing himself to overcome physical boundaries that cancer presented him with.
Our final speaker of the day was Paralympian Liz Johnson, who spoke about the importance of setting goals according to what you want to achieve and embracing the things that make us unique and using them to motivate us to achieve anything we set our minds to.
In between speakers, we had a number of breakout sessions available for the young people to choose from. Patricia from Minding Emotions hosted a relaxing yoga session, whilst Steve and Adil from The Ability People offered careers guidance and opportunities. Also on offer was a workshop with Mark from Mark Wild Health, demonstrating how we can incorporate exercise into our daily lives without specifically taking part in training sessions. Carolina from The Anti Ageing Clinic and Make-Up Artist Tallulah offered skincare advice and makeovers in our Beauty Parlour, and our hosts Beth and Leanne recorded a very special podcast featuring some of the young people attending Discover You, which will be released on The C-Pod soon.
A fantastic energiser with Dan from Junk Tank brought all of our guests together in the afternoon to make some noise and work together to create rhythmic music. We are grateful to the Harry-Krish Mootoosamy Foundation for funding this part of the day.
We aim to give events like Discover You lots of special touches, so we were thrilled to be able to offer some fantastic goodie bags for the young people to take home with them. A huge thank you goes to Volunteer, Joe, for his time and effort in sourcing these items which were generously donated in support of the event.
We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all who helped us to make Discover You such a positive and uplifting day for the young people we support, including all of our incredible Volunteers: Tyler, Eilish, Mikhaila, Jess, Derry, Marta, Viv, Joe, Rosemary, Emma, Marjorie, Grace, Jim (Photographer) and Lawrence (Videographer).
To help us bring together more young people overcoming cancer at events like Discover You, please click here to donate.
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