Home » Jack Lisowski, Judd Trump

Jack and Judd open the first specialist Teenage Cancer Trust unit in the South West

18 June 2014 One Comment

TEENAGE CANCER TRUST PATRON THE DUCHESS OF YORK AND WORLD SNOOKER PLAYERS JUDD TRUMP AND JACK LISOWSKI OPEN FIRST SPECIALIST TEENAGE CANCER UNIT IN THE SOUTH WEST

Yesterday, Sarah, Duchess of York and world snooker players Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, officially opened at Bristol Haematology Oncology Centre, the first specialist Teenage Cancer Trust unit in the South West for local young people with cancer.
Each year, over 200 young people from Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall, are diagnosed with cancer. Across the UK, around seven are diagnosed every day. Traditionally treated either on a children’s ward or on an adult ward often alongside elderly patients, young people can feel extremely isolated during treatment, some never meeting another young person with cancer. Being treated alongside others their own age, by experts in teenage and young adult cancer care, can make a huge difference to a young person’s experience.
Thanks to fundraising support from local communities, a volunteer committee chaired by Lady Wills, Trust funds from The Garfield Weston Foundation and The John James Bristol Foundation and generous help from corporate partners, Home Retail Group, The FA, MandM Direct and Societe Generale, Teenage Cancer Trust raised £2.5million to open this new eight bed unit. Named Area 61 by the patients and taking ten months to build, the state-of-the-art unit offers 16 to 24 year olds a place to receive treatment where they can feel at home.
The unit also gives young people the best possible care, support and access to treatment via a team of specialist doctors, nurses and youth support staff who are all experts in teenage and young adult cancer care. Teenage Cancer Trust funds the lead nurse and youth support coordinator roles within this team. The youth support coordinator helps young people share their experiences and fears with each other, encourages them to socialise by arranging activities and outings and participate in a peer support group.
Area 61 has two floors, with one floor dedicated to in-patients with five en-suite bedrooms with sofa beds for family and friends to stay overnight. It also has a large social area where young people can play pool, listen to music, play games consoles or watch films on the latest Smart TVs. There’s also a kitchen and dining space where meals can be cooked at all times of day and night, as well as a lounge for family members to take a break. The other floor is for day patients, featuring three treatment pods, two consulting rooms, a procedure room, a social space which includes entertainment and gaming consoles and a waiting area with cafe.
A group of young people with cancer were involved in the overall design of the unit and worked with local street artist Dave Bain to develop the wall art. James Lusher, the architect also consulted young people on the furniture designs and colours. Long term patron of Teenage Cancer Trust, Sarah, Duchess of York who opened the unit said: “Teenage Cancer Trust is the most incredible charity, helping young people stay teenagers first, cancer patients second. I’ve been a patron for over 20 years and I’ve seen it grow and lead the way in the treatment of teenage and young adult cancer. This new unit will help so many local young people and their families and friends.
” Teenage Cancer Trust ambassadors Jack Lisowski from Cheltenham and Judd Trump, from Bristol, also helped officially open the unit and have been supporting the local fundraising appeal. It’s a cause close to their hearts as at 16 Jack was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Jack said: “It’s a fantastic moment to be here today and the unit is so much better than we could have ever imagined. Teenage Cancer Trust is an amazing organisation and I only wish I had benefitted from being treated here.”
Siobhan Dunn, Chief Executive of Teenage Cancer Trust said: “This is an exciting moment in Teenage Cancer Trust’s history as it’s our first specialist unit in the South West. It’s a remarkable facility and we now need local communities and businesses to continue supporting our work here as we now need to raise a £1,000 a day to maintain the unit, fund specialist staff and continue our free cancer awareness sessions in schools across the region.”
Jamie Cargill, Teenage Cancer Trust Lead Nurse at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust comments about today’s milestone: ” The unit opening marks the final phase in a multi-million pound investment the charity has made in young people’s cancer services across the South West.”
In December 2012, Teenage Cancer Trust lent its design expertise to enhance a brand new hospital ward at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children for 11 to 16 year olds with a variety of complex health issues including cancer. The charity has also adopted five teenage and young adult specialist nurses who operate from various shared care hospitals across the South West. By doing so, this provides an excellent model of care for 15-24 year olds no matter where they live in the region.

One Comment »

  • Richard Dube said:

    Now in the Grand Prix as opponents. :-) .

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.