Race is on for £100,000 Accelerator Appeal
Maxwell Kusi Obodum • Published 3 Feb 2012 09:30
1 Comment
THE Chronicle has launched a groundbreaking campaign to improve cancer patients' life chances with the next generation of high-tech machinery to battle the deadly disease.
We are teaming up with the Royal Berkshire Hospital to raise £100,000 towards a specialised radiotherapy machine, the first of its kind in the country and only the second in Europe.
Mark Goff, director of the hospital's Royal Berks Charity, said: "This is about getting the best facilities to step up care. There's room for everybody to get involved to provide equipment to help you, your family and friends."
The £1m Elekta Compact [corr] machine, earmarked for the Royal Berks Cancer Centre, is a smaller version of the hospital's four state of the art linear accelerators (Linacs) which enable oncologists to destroy cancerous tumours using highly accurate radiation beams.
Two larger Linacs are already up and running in the centre, a partially constructed one is coming on line later this year and another is already installed at the Royal Berkshire Bracknell Clinic.
The compact machine, which clinicians want to launch in December, will replace a 19-year-old Linac, and contractors will modernise and refurbish its control room and lead-lined concrete bunker.
In time they hope to upgrade it to provide Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), a more complex treatment only offered by the larger machines. It uses multiple beams which better track tumour shapes greatly reducing tissue damage and the side-effects such as nausea and bladder and bowel problems.
But IMRT sessions take 20 minutes - 10 minutes longer than conventional treatments and the new machine, costing a third of the price of the larger ones, will free up more space for non-IMRT patients while allowing more opportunities for staff training and research.
Consultant oncologist Dr Richard Brown, a lung, urology, prostate and bladder cancer specialist, said: "This will allow us state of the art facilities with more capacity for treatment, and enabling us to improve the development of new techniques. It gives us flexibility to match the patient to the most appropriate machine."
Our exciting appeal, follows the 2011 National Year of Radiotherapy, and we need our big hearted readers to support this exciting appeal by donating generously and signing up for fundraising events.
The charity still has a handful of spaces in the Mizuno Reading Half Marathon, which sets off from Green Park on Sunday, April 1, and climaxes at the Madejski Stadium. Runners tackling the 13.1 mile course must raise a minimum of £350, and the charity also needs volunteers and route marshals.
The charity is also seeking pledges of long term support by making regular direct debit donations or leaving a legacy in their will.
Charity director Mark Goff said: "We want to establish there's something here on their doorstep they can get involved in and leave a legacy."
To donate contact 0118 322 6969 or email charity@royalberkshire.nhs.uk
Donors can also text RBCL05 to 70070 followed by any amount from £1 to £10, and ticking the gift aid box if applicable.
Royal Berks Charity Accelerator Appeal JustGiving page is poised to go online.
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 03 Feb 12
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G O D
Unregistered User
Feb 3, 12:37
Report commentThere shouldn't even need to be an appeal. The government should deal with issues such as immigration and stop involving the UK in overseas wars/aid and put the indigenous population first and foremost. If the above essentials are reliant on the charity of others the current lot clearly aren't getting their own house in order first...
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