To mark its 30th anniversary year, local charity York Against Cancer has launched an appeal to raise £100,000 to support its ongoing work - including a new mobile chemotherapy unit. FRANCINE CLEE reports

LOCAL charity York Against Cancer has revealed the first pictures of its latest project – a £700,000 mobile chemotherapy unit to take treatment closer to home for patients in outlying parts of the county.

The unit, the first in Yorkshire, will also boost York chemotherapy services, ensuring capacity for longer and more complex procedures to be carried out at the main hospital.

The computer-generated images show the unit as it will look when it takes to the road this summer, and as it will appear once it is ready to admit patients at sites in Selby, Malton, Scarborough and Bridlington.

To be operated by the York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the unit has been custom-built in Telford, Shropshire, with input from teams within the hospital trust including clinical, transport, estates and facilities, IT and infection prevention.

The unit is a key project in an important year for York Against Cancer. The city charity celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017 and has been marking its achievement with events including a Minster service and a party at Bishopthorpe Palace in honour of its legions of volunteers.

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Image showing the mobile chemotherapy unit as it will look when parked ready for use

Almost 150 local men and women gathered for the party, united by the common cause for which they have worked since York Against Cancer was first founded back in 1987 to raise money for cancer care, research and education.

Archbishop Sentamu met the volunteers and praised them for their dedicated work, which he said would have helped many cancer patients to get through their treatment. “Thank you for doing it until we find a cure and it doesn’t threaten anybody any more,” he told them.

The volunteers have also just received the highest honour the nation can bestow in recognition of their work. They have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the equivalent of an MBE. The award will be presented to York Against Cancer in a ceremony in Scarborough in September.

These are moment to savour for the volunteers and for the charity itself; but York Against Cancer is not resting on its laurels. It is working to ensure its new unit gets off to a flying start through a £100,000 appeal to support its work.

Major events including a 30th anniversary Feather and Pearls Ball, to be held at York Racecourse on September 23, will help York Against Cancer reach its target, but it is also appealing for the public to assist with donations and fundraising efforts.

One dedicated team of cyclists, the York Pedallers, has been swelling the funds with a gruelling York to Paris bike ride, and the charity is keen to hear from anyone who would also like to help the appeal.

Since it was established York Against Cancer has raised £15,000,000, some of it in partnership with this newspaper, with whose staff it worked on a successful appeal to establish the Cancer Care Centre at York Hospital.

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A York Against Cancer tea party with the Archbishop of York

The charity continues to support the work of the centre, as well as running a daily minibus service taking patients to St James’s Hospital, Leeds, for radiotherapy treatment.

The Jack Birch Unit at the University of York was created through York Against Cancer and is named after the charity’s founding chairman. It pursues internationally recognised cancer research and is currently supported by a million-pound funding programme through the charity.

Over the years it has also funded specialist chemotherapy nurses and other cancer specialist roles, and it has opened two respite homes in Whitby and in Filey, the latter of which came into service this spring.

The homes offer short breaks free of charge for cancer patients being treated through the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and its services.

A current collaboration with the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group has also seen a significant step forward in the fight against skin cancer locally.

York Against Cancer invested around £26,000 in dermatoscopes for local GPs to take specialised photographs that can be quickly analysed by hospital dermatologists to make a speedy diagnosis. Waiting times for suspected skin cancer referrals swiftly improved after the introduction of the dermatoscopes in the CCG area.

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A dermatoscope in use

York Against Cancer also works to improve cancer awareness and education in and around York. It has produced a number of education packs to help teachers teach their pupils about healthy lifestyles and cancer risks, and it gives free sun hats to thousands of local schoolchildren every year.

York Against Cancer’s chairman Professor Steve Leveson, one of the founders of the charity back in 1987, said he could hardly believe that 30 years had passed since the organisation was born.

“It’s amazing to see how far we have come since those early days,” he said, “but during that time we have always stuck with our core values: to improve patient care, to foster high-quality research at the university and to raise awareness relating to cancer and healthy living.

“None of this would have happened without our volunteers and supporters, and we owe them an immense debt of gratitude. Our need for funds remains challenging but achievable.”