Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield, has a world-leading reputation as a centre of excellence in the fight against cancer. Its purpose-built Cancer Research Centre, partly funded through charitable gifts and donations, is fully integrated within the hospital and is credited as a pioneer of numerous modern advances within the field of cancer research.
At the heart of all Weston Park’s endeavours are the patients and their families. Dealt hand-in-hand with the obvious debilitating effects of cancer are the emotional, financial and practical challenges that this disease engenders. A Cancer Information and Support Centre has been built specifically at Weston Park Hospital, offering ongoing help and advice to patients and families coping with daily life under very difficult circumstances.
Arguably the best radiotherapy department in the UK, Weston Park is ideally equipped to handle the 6,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed annually in the South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire region alone. On average, nearly 60,000 patient visits are received annually.
Weston Park Hospital’s expertise resides in its range of effective radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments that are performed. Patients travel from all across the country, in some cases even from abroad, in order to receive the specialist treatments and care for which Weston Park is renowned.
A purpose-built Teenage Cancer Unit with its comfortable ‘home-from-home’ atmosphere, caters for the needs and emotional support of young cancer sufferers between the ages of 16 and 25 for whom the treatment experience may be particularly daunting. For patients undergoing a more intensive regime of chemotherapy Weston Park possesses 79 inpatient beds spread over three separate wards. There is also an eight bedded assessment unit where patients who are receiving treatment but experiencing side effects can be seen for advice and treatment.
An average of 55 people per day visit the hospital’s chemotherapy unit as outpatients. Over 18,000 patients are currently under the care of Weston Park Hospital, which equates to over 150,000 individual patient visits each year.
Weston Park Hospital’s own consultants also work tirelessly alongside a number of outpatient clinics in the surrounding areas of Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and Chesterfield, to help plan the most beneficial chemotherapy treatments for people attending their own District General Hospitals.
Weston Park Cancer Charity raises around £2million each year to improve the lives of people living with cancer. Thanks to the dedicated and tireless efforts of community initiatives, corporate partners, donors and volunteers, the charity has raised over £22million since beginning in 1994 to improve the lives of those fighting cancer.
The charity contributes over £300,000 each year to the Cancer Support Centre, which offers a drop-in facility to help people affected by cancer cope with any problem posed by the diagnosis. Last year, the centre had over 9000 visits and calls.
£40,000 assists community transport, run by volunteers, bringing over 12,000 patients a year from Chesterfield and Doncaster to receive treatment at the hospital. Patients are rarely well enough to drive or take a bus, and with a taxi to and from Sheffield potentially costing £50 or more, the service provides convenient transport at no charge to patients.
£30,000 is spent on complementary therapies for over 1,100 cancer patients experiencing stress, pain or other negative consequences from chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Working with Age UK Sheffield, every year support is provided to 350 older people with cancer living alone, in poverty or with poor wellbeing. The programme costs over £75,000 a year to deliver and helps them claim the benefits they are entitled to, makes sure homes are appropriately adapted and provides company to people who would otherwise have to face the fight alone.
Weston Park Cancer Charity currently funds 17 innovative research projects, including projects to improve treatments for breast cancer, bone cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer.
Every pound donated is put to the best use, supporting cancer patients and their families and funding research projects for the benefit of future generations.
Riley Blue 