Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Michael Douglas, Founder and Hon Trustee of the Chartwell Cancer Trust to the meeting to provide an update on the work of the charity.
Mr Douglas informed Members that he had been diagnosed with leukaemia in 2003 and had received treatment in the Chartwell Unit at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH). During this time he had been struck by how understaffed the Unit was, particularly the shortage of Health Care Assistants (HCA). In 2005 he had established the Chartwell Cancer Trust and the first fundraising was for the cost of funding an extra HCA in the treatment suite. Ever since, the Chartwell Cancer Trust had funded additional medical staff specifically for the unit, including junior doctors and haematologists; specialist haematology and breast screening clinics; and transportation for those patients that required it. The money received by the Chartwell Cancer Trust had also been used to fund the refurbishment of the treatment suite within the Chartwell Unit to improve the layout to make it more accessible, moving the reception to the front and installing air conditioning and a coffee machine for the nurses.
Since then, the Chartwell Cancer Trust had grown and provided support to other out of borough hospitals – Queen Elizabeth Hospital – Woolwich (QEH), Croydon University Hospital, King’s College Hospital, Guy’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital. Through fundraising, the Chartwell Children’s Cancer Trust also provided support to the Tiger Ward – QEH and Frog Ward – Croydon University Hospital. The nurses on the Tiger Ward had created a “wish list”, and over time they had installed a kitchen, new flooring and beds. Fundraising towards the target required to develop a new playroom on the Frog Ward was nearly complete. Money raised was also used to run four oncology groups, purchase tickets for the children to attend the Christmas pantomime, and fund a holiday home on the Isle of Wight that the children could visit. The funding of local Childhood Cancer Support Groups for children undergoing treatment for cancer or leukaemia provided monthly meetups. These events provided families with the opportunity to make special memories together and allowed them to have some “normal” time with other families in similar situations. It also provided parents with the opportunity to “swap news”. One parent had suggested the development of an app, which could be used following a diagnosis, that showed a film of each stage the child would go through on their treatment journey ahead.
Mr Douglas highlighted that courses of treatment for childhood cancer were much longer than those for adult cancers, which often left the children missing out on time at school. To help combat this, the AV1 ‘No Isolation’ Robot had been created. The robot could sit on the child’s desk at school, and acted as their eyes, ears and voice in the classroom, allowing them to feel as if they were in the room. It could be accessed from wherever the child was, be it in hospital or at home, and allowed them to stay connected with their classmates, peers and teachers and continue with their education when they were too ill to physically attend school.
Other fundraising projects for King’s included support for Professor John Strouboulis’s cultured cell and gene editing research project; a specific brain cancer research project; and a “Virtual Conferencing” facility for a cancer Multi-Disciplinary Meeting Room to host meetings. Discussions were also taking place regarding the possibility of redeveloping the education centre. Further updates from the Chartwell Cancer Trust were available via the following social media platforms:
Facebook - @ChartwellCancerTrust
Twitter - @ChartwellCancer
Instagram - @chartwellcancertrust
The Chairman thanked Mr Douglas for his presentation to the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee.
RESOLVED that the presentation be noted.