A CHARITY founded by a cancer survivor has bought a holiday home to offer welcome relief to other people battling the disease.

The Chyrelle Addams Cancer Appeal has purchased a large static caravan on the Durham coast to be used by patients and their families.

The charity, which was founded by club singer Trish Greensmith in 2007, has raised more than £100,000 to buy medical equipment for hospitals to use in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Mrs Greensmith, who started the charity under her stage name Chyrelle Addams after being diagnosed with breast cancer, said the holiday home at Crimdon Dene Caravan Park should prove an excellent source of comfort for other people going through the ordeal of battling the disease.

The 12-year-old Atlas Florida Home at the park at Blackhall Colliery, will also be available for volunteers who help keep the charity going.

Mrs Greensmith, who praised volunteer Kay Wigham for arranging the caravan, said: “If somebody who is affected by cancer is having a really naff time we can now give them somewhere to go where they can relax and have a break from it all.”

The charity received £10,000 from the big lottery Fund’s Awards For All scheme for the caravan, which can sleep up to eight people at a time, and raised a further £4,000 themselves.

And park owners Park Resorts have offered to help the charity maintain the caravan.

Ms Wigham said: “The management team at the park have been fantastic, they could not have been more helpful.”

The charity also recently bought four infusion pumps worth £10,000 for Shotley Bridge hospital and has just opened a new shop next to its existing Cancer Support Centre in Mrs Greensmith’s home town of Willington, County Durham.

Mrs Greensmith also made an appeal for volunteers to work in the shop, which sells a mix of sweets and donated goods and clothes, and said she now needs around 20 more people to help out.

She said: “We are in more need than ever for people to help out.

“Without volunteers this charity just can’t do the things that we do.”

For more information contact Mrs Greensmith on 07425-139223.