We are YPGST! We are a campaign group, and support network for young people living with a life-long condition, terminal illness and mental health disorder. 

We are passionate about young people’s care, we want to ensure that young people are getting the best possible care that they can for their condition. Young people currently find accessing the right services hard, compared to our elder counterparts. Diagnostic screening and testing is a slow process for young people, unless they are brought in through an emergency situation. We want to make screening and testing more readily available to young people because this could save lives! Young people miss out because there is a poor misconception not just by a lay person, but by medical professionals too, that "you're too young to be sick" which isn’t true. Many of our symptoms are dismissed by doctors, meaning that suffering must go on longer than needed. The thinking by healthcare professionals seems to be that young people must be obsessing over their health, or making things up, or attention seeking, and this leads to significant under-diagnosis and leaves young people more vulnerable to serious complications as a result of poor treatment. They need to remember that ‘Young People Get Sick Too!’

We have set up a support network; which is a platform for young people with a condition to communicate with others going through a similar situation, who can understand their experiences and relate to them. Young people have found this a great support! We have been told by users what a relief it is to have conversations about their struggles without people trying to change the subject or dismiss their concerns. It is a really great moment when one of the users overcomes one of life’s many challenges, and we can celebrate as a community with them.