Making the future possible for more children with cancer A new fundraising campaign has been launched to establish a specialist childrenās cancer research facility at Ā鶹“«Ć½. The Future Fund aims to raise £5.5 million to establish the Ā鶹“«Ć½ Centre for Childhood Cancer. It is a collaborative project between the University, the North of England Childrenās Cancer Research (NECCR) charity and the Great North Childrenās Hospital (GNCH) ā home to one of the UKās leading centres for paediatric oncology.The planned research facility will provide state-of-the-art resources to enable world-leading academics and clinicians to advance and accelerate the childrenās cancer research and treatment that has already earned them international recognition.Thankfully, childhood cancer is rare. Yet it remains the main cause of non-accidental death in children from one to 15 years of age. The Future Fund aims to change these statistics by putting Ā鶹“«Ć½ at the centre of the fight against the disease. Each year, around 1,600 children are diagnosed with cancer in the UK, and one in 700 young adults is now a survivor of childhood cancer.Though survival rates are improving thanks to advances in diagnosis and treatment, the side effects associated with current treatments are recognised as a major problem. Many long-term cancer survivors suffer chronic health problems related to their original therapy. Changing lives for the better , Director of the at Ā鶹“«Ć½ (NICR) and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at the , said: āChildhood cancer has been one of the success stories of modern medicine. Such have been the advances made over the past 30 years that eight out of 10 children diagnosed today will be cured. However, cancer in children and young people still remains a serious challenge. āWe lack efficient therapies for some children who present with advanced stages of disease or for those whose cancer has come back. Even for survivors, the treatment can come with quite a heavy burden as two out of three survivors are left with chronic health problems associated with side effects.ā Clinical and research staff at the NICR and GNCH are working tirelessly to understand childhood cancers and to develop therapies with fewer side effects.NICRās vision is to tailor therapies and develop new and innovative treatments for patients ā and its work has already changed thousands of young lives for the better. Key areas of expertise are childhood leukaemia, brain tumours and neuroblastoma.Professor Vormoor, a celebrated expert in childhood cancers, passionately believes the new facilities would help his world-class researchers to make further advances by bringing together teams from sites across the city. He said: āThe time has come to create more space for our work to grow. If our researchers reach their full potential they will have an even greater impact on childrenās lives. āFast forward five to ten years and I believe we will have completely changed the way we treat children with cancer. We have the perfect clinical environment, with teams of experts in our Oncology Units at the Great North Childrenās Hospital. With equally excellent research facilities, our increasing knowledge and the drug discoveries that are being made, we will be using increasingly targeted drugs that specifically attack cancer cells and minimise the side effects. Though we clearly wonāt achieve this on our own, I believe that the team in Ā鶹“«Ć½ will be key to making that step change.ā Plans for the future The planned Ā鶹“«Ć½ Centre for Childhood Cancer will be established in the heart of the Ā鶹“«Ć½ campus and will help the city retain key staff and attract additional internationally recognised experts in the field.Professor Chris Day, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medical Sciences, at Ā鶹“«Ć½, said: "The NICR is already the leading centre for research into childhood cancer in the UK and it is poised to become one of the major centres for paediatric oncology research in Europe. "Creating the advanced laboratories needed for our world-class research will enable us to build on our strong track record and achieve our goal of changing the lives of more children. With the fantastic support of our partners and the public, Ā鶹“«Ć½ will continue to develop as a centre for research in this vital area." Case study: Brodyās storyWhen three-year-old Brody Richardson couldnāt shake off what appeared to be a simple cold, his parents took him to the GP for what they imagined would be a very routine check. Yet just hours later they were in the back of an ambulance being rushed to the Great North Childrenā s Hospital in Ā鶹“«Ć½ and preparing to fight a battle that would change the lives of their entire family. Brodyās susceptibility to bruising alerted the GP to the possibility of leukaemia and a blood test confirmed his parentsā worst fears. Genetic profiling revealed Brody was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a cancer of the white blood cells, which is the most common childhood cancer. Brody is half-way through his gruelling three years of treatment, which initially involved six months of intensive chemotherapy and is now being followed by āmaintenanceā treatments, many of which are administered at his home in Whitley Bay. His dad Jim said: āLuck doesnāt seem the right word to use but we were lucky in some ways that Brodyās leukaemia was ALL because it is the most common type and therefore it is the most understood and has the highest survival rates. This doesnāt detract from the fact that it is still a terrifying prospect to learn that your child has cancer but it is a comfort to know that you are benefitting from decades of research.ā Jim felt so privileged to have the strength of Ā鶹“«Ć½ās research and clinical expertise on the side of his family that he began fundraising to support research in childhood cancers and his commitment led to his appointment as Vice Chairman of the North of England Childrenās Cancer Research. He added: āIf Brody had been diagnosed with leukaemia in the 1960s he would not have had a very good chance at all of coming through it. We are benefiting from more than 50 years of fundraising and research by other people and itās only right that we help the parents of the next generation of children suffering from cancers ā especially those we donāt yet understand so well.ā How to get involved: For more information or to donate online visit the , or telephone 0191 208 7250. Support the fund on Facebook /futurefundnewcastle, on Twitter @FutureFundNCL and use the hashtag #NCLFF published on: 28 June 2014
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